28 MAY 1983, Page 32

Music

Set apart

A. S. Henry

If, in the last six months, you have been thinking of buying a new recording of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos, your choice would have to be made between three sets, all performed on original instruments. These are by Nicholaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus (Telefunken AZ6 42823), the Linde Consort (HMV SLS 5256) and Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert (Archly 2742 003). To commit

myself from the outset, I would say that Trevor Pinnock's set is a landmark in the technique both of recording and playing old instruments. I do not mean that 'for an early music performance' this is an exciting set; I mean that by any standards — the ubiquitous Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan if you like — this interpretation is

exceptional. It stands as an answer to those who think it impossible that a bunch of players who have spent, at the most, ten years reviving forgotten habits of perfor- mance can rival the decades of experience built up in the world's leading symphony orchestras. This has been achieved not merely by a scholarly and specialised ap- proach to the music, but by sheer musician- ship; and such a victory of gut-reaction over meticulous research is still disaPP0in; tingly rare in authentic performances 01 early music. As a result of this, 'early music' is still considered to be something apart from the standard repertoire, even when, as with Bach's Brandenburgs, stars' lard and authentic repertoires overlap. I hope this divide is about to be bridged, but it is understandable. Because authentic performance Poses very considerable technical problems, and requires a pioneering turn of mind, the ear- ly music movement has thrown up its own stars — for the most part young and strug..- gling to make a reputation. There is, then, lack of contact between their activities and those of the leading interpreters of our daY' Why doesn't Haitink conduct the Amster- dam Baroque Orchestra? Would it be t0.1; great a leap for the best pianists in the world sometimes to play the harpsichord? The split goes deeper: whereas in the Pa,g_n pianist or an orchestra would have able to play almost anything that took tnr_ fancy, nowadays, not least because of :le: advance of authentic performan everyone has become cautious. This is not healthy: some of the richest repertoires in the history of music are becoming _ the preserve of relatively inexperienced ex oPs'e rimenters. I say 'relatively' on PaPvery because many authentic specialists are vide competent, but in total they do not prt the same variety of interpretation an ,t1;ci highest level of thought as the sra.sel..,3., repertoire players. Specialisation in tbia,_";11751 is tolerable if every area of music-rn obviously gains from having more time devoted to it. It must be so in scientific research in general, and it certainly is so in trying to determine the original circum- stances of the peformance of this music. But that knowledge can only take a player so far; in the end it is only the strength of his reaction to the music, and his power to communicate his reaction, that counts. Here of course musical performance differs in essence from scientific research.

It may well be that knowing the cir- cumstances of the first performance, of knowing 'what the composer would have heard', of sitting in front of an instrument of a size and tone-quality which the com- poser might have had in mind, helps a musi- cian to focus the strength of his reaction to his repertoire, and helps him to com- municate it. Such a musician needs to define his feelings very carefully. If there is more than a hint of nostalgia or sentimen- tality in his looking to the past, his inter- pretations will run the risk of being flabby- minded, and endlessly pretty. A pianist who makes his bread from playing 19th- and 20th-century music, is likely to have more to say about Bach than a specialist who has packed his mind with the minutiae of authenticity. Take, for instance, Richter's recent recordings of the complete Handel keyboard suites (HMV SLS 5234) or Gould's famous Bach '48' set (CBS 77427), both on the piano. We have reached the stage when my local record-dealer (trading somewhat remotely in Staffordshire) apologises that these sets are not on the harpsichord, and points me in the direction of the reliably dry Gustav Leonhardt. I can recommend the 'piano versions whole- heartedly: there is a sense that nothing has come between the music and its inter- preter. They have no theory to prove, and are at ease.

It is tempting to believe, from what early musicians sometimes say about their chosen repertoires, that for them a good perfor- mance must and can only proceed from the most scholarly recreation of contemporary circumstances. Although absolute authen- ticity is impossible, it is self-evident that this is a new angle on the music which may be enlightening. However I believe that if the music is of the greatest it will have something to say in almost any mode of performance, so long as the players have in- tegrity and believe in what they're doing. The mysteries of bringing music to life for modern audiences can never be encompass- ed by a comfortable belief in authenticity. To say so is to agree with those critics of the English course at Oxford University who said that the faculty was trying to raise their studies to the respectability of a dead language. Nor is the responsibility of relearning old and potentially very difficult techniques to be lightly undertaken. The public has been enormously patient with the inadequacies of authentic performances so far; but the Pinnock Brandenburgs do at last show an ease of technique, and relaxa- tion with the medium, which are prere- quisites for convincing interpretation. With them authentic performance can stand on its own feet and needs no circumstantial justification. In general, though, early- music performers who blind you with the science of what they're doing should be treated with great suspicion: their resear- ches are only a preliminary stage which one would be entitled to take for granted.