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The Friends of Chamber Music brought to Kansas City the baroque ensemble, REBEL, with tenor Rufus Müller Friday night in a concert entitled, “Out of the Eclipse.” Held at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, the concert presented a dramatic recital of pieces exploring dark and light aspects in the music of Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Telemann, Blow, and Bach. Primed for the evening, the audience was submerged in almost total darkness as REBEL took stage, tuned their period instruments, and transported the listeners back to the eighteenth century.

Beginning with Handel’s Overture to Agrippina, the eight skilled instrumentalists of REBEL set the precedent for the evening: slower, emotional sections were executed with focused intent and, in equal adroitness, were contrasted with fast, rhythmically precise passages. Immediately evident were the talents of first violinist and conductor, Jörg-Michael Schwarz. His impeccable bow control and communicative gestures confidently led the ensemble through the concert’s repertoire.

Rufus Müller’s first notes of the night followed in Handel’s “Total Eclipse” and “Your Charms to Ruin” from Samson. Müller’s dramatic text delivery, sensitive vocal quality, and facial expressions paired with the simple sounds of the baroque instruments, highlighted the arias’ hopelessness. His talent for interpretation of text was apparent in Telemann’s gentle aria “Wie? Kehren sich bei Jesus Krippen,” from Fortsetzung des harmonischen Gottesdienstes.

Bach’s Concerto in A major for oboe d’amore showed off the ensemble’s fabulous oboist, Meg Owens. Her technical precision and overall sensitivity provided a beautiful interpretation of Bach’s concerto—even though the orchestra felt somewhat rigid and unwilling to bend to Owens’s finesse of musical line.

Müller, as Friends of Chamber Music president and founder Cynthia Siebert informed the audience at the concert’s opening, was sick for the night’s performance. This unfortunate case manifested in Bach’s “Zerschmettert mich, ihr Felsen und ihr Hügel” from the St. John Passion. The tricky aria, full of leaps and runs, was unstable in Müller’s voice—vocal cracks and unsupported singing pervaded, particularly in abrupt musical jumps to his upper register.

Müller redeemed himself, however, in the lyrical selections following the intermission. Telemann’s aria from Was gleicht dem Adel wahrer Christen and Handel’s “Tune Your Harps” from Esther contained no traces of Müller’s previous technical instability. On the contrary, he commanded the slow, legato pieces with complete confidence, both in his delivery and beauty of tone.

Throughout the concert, the program shifted away from the “Total Eclipse” of darkness to a hopeful brightness, particularly evident in John Blow’s Chacony in G Major and the Fantasia No. 13 (“Upon One Note”) by Henry Purcell. These optimistic pieces, exploiting major tonalities and livelier melodies, brought a new, more hopeful mindset.

As the stage lights subtly increased and illuminated the cathedral, the concert culminated with Handel’s rousing aria “His Mighty Arm” from Jephtha. Müller aptly and exuberantly conquered the rapid melismas peppered throughout aria with precision and relative ease. The energy with which the concert concluded reasserted the force’s aptitude in performing a wide array of baroque repertoire. The audience began in hopeless darkness, but, through REBEL’s technical precision and sophisticated interpretation and Müller’s dramatic singing, was transplanted into a world of light and positivity.

REVIEW:
The Friends of Chamber Music
REBEL with Rufus Müller, tenor
Friday, November 18, 2011
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W. 13^th Street, Kansas City, MO
For more information, visit http://www.chambermusic.org  

Top Photo: REBEL (Photo by Leif Zurmuhlen)

By Tom Marks

Classical Contributor

Tom Marks holds a degree in vocal performance (B.M., summa cum laude) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is currently pursing a degree in musicology (M.M.), also from the UMKC Conservatory. A graduate teaching assistant, Tom can generally be found
rummaging through books in the UMKC library, exploring potential research topics. In addition to researching music, Tom is an active vocal performer (baritone) and has appeared in various venues throughout the Kansas City area. Recently, Tom has appeared in productions of the Kansas City Metro Opera, Bay View Summer Music Festival in Bay View, Michigan, and UMKC’s choral, musical theater, and opera department.

Outside of the conservatory, Tom is a music intern at the Village Presbyterian Church where he performs solo and choral vocal music and, on occasion, conducts the Village choir. Tom also writes program notes for the Bach Aria Soloists 2011–12 concert series. Future aspirations include a Ph.D. in musicology with an emphasis in early music, particularly of the late Renaissance and early baroque periods.