The Catskill Chronicle

Photo courtesy of http://www.larkchamberartists.com/graphics/Ken-Cooper.jpg

By Barry Plaxen

For the first concert of the Chamber Music at St. Andrew’s yearly series, world renowned keyboardist, conductor and musicologist, Kenneth Cooper, returned to South Fallsburg for his fourth appearance in this free series. Cooper is one of the world’s leading specialists in baroque music and is known for his improvisations and ornamentations.

Originally planning on performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Cooper changed his mind and performed “Bach and Scarlatti: The Spirit of Enlightenment.”

The thrust of the program was on the subject of baroque ornamentation. Cooper paraphrased a quote of Bach’s: “It is certain that the manner of singing or playing the addition of ornaments is almost everywhere valued and considered desirable … and can please the ear only if it is applied to the right places. But only the fewest have sufficient knowledge to do so. Therefore every composer …i s entitled to set the wanderers back on the right path.”

Coopers concerts, solo or otherwise, are enhanced by his musicological expositions. His explanation of the why of ornamentation in the baroque period was directly aligned to the harpsichord and its dynamics limitations. He explicitly and humorously explained and indicated how to make the harpsichord sound as if it could emit crescendos and diminuendos.

The Scarlatti pieces contrasted with Bach. This Scarlatti quote explains, “Whether you be Dilettante or Professor, in these compositions do not expect any profound learning, but rather an ingenious Jesting with Art, to accommodate you to the Mastery of the Harpsichord … Perhaps they will be agreeable to you; then all the more gladly will I obey other Commands to please you in an easier and more varied Style. Show yourself more human than critical, and thereby increase you own Delight.”

And that was good advice as Cooper’s chosen selections were an amazing sampling of a large variety of Scarlatti’s styles and levels of difficulty. I was especially fascinated with Cooper’s explanation and then examples of dissonance, and how Scarlatti used it to make the harpsichord sound louder.

Chamber Music at St, Andrew’s, now celebrating its ninth year, offers two free chamber music concerts a season, performed by outstanding musicians “that enrich inspire and bring pleasure to Sullivan County audiences.” This year’s second concert in October will be the return of Flute Force, a quartet of female flutists. The concerts are held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Route 42 in South Fallsburg. For more information e-mail Peggy Friedman at pcfriedman27@gmail.com.