One swallow does not make a summer

Second to last concert of an edition, by Muffati-Brussels Baroque Orchestra, until then immaculate and with one of the concerts that for some was almost the cherry on top of a magnificent cake. An evening entirely dedicated to the one who was everything, Johann Sebastian Bach, with a tasty and rich program, like a small great demonstration of the undisputed condition of the great capoper of music history. For example, with the first piece, the "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major BWV 1050, which treasuresa first majestic and original movement, the impeccable combination of the different solo instruments, harpsichord, flute, and violin crowned by an innovative sixty-four-bar cadence by the harpsichord, which until that moment in history only served as a fundamental but not very ostentatious basso continuo. Only with this Allegro initially we had enough ingredients to enjoy thoroughly. It wasn't like that. Just when it had barely started, a gust of wind blew away Frank Theuns's sheet music and perhaps here the elements allied against any possibility of enjoyment. Hope was placed in the cadence, but not even that. Violaine Cochard, at the height of her performance, seemed to be chasing the notes as if it were an obstacle race to align them with those coming from the original; a task that was almost impossible without the adequate (over)dose of virtuosity. It is easy to imagine that it was not simple to sort out the mess.

Everything improved exponentially with the Suite No. 2 Overture BWV1067 as ifhad the calm arrived after the whirlwind that had caused the upheaval on stage. A challenge at the end of the piece for the across barroc de Frank Theuns, from which he emerged with considerable fortune. Everything seemed in place, perhaps there was a lack of intensity and a bit of volume for the flutist.

The second part began with the orchestral Suite in D major BWV 1068, which includes the famous Aria, the second movement, a magnificence that was reduced to its minimum expression. All very flat, monochrome, when this first movement demands vigor and energy to contrast with the delicacy of the next. Neither good nor bad, but quite the opposite. They performed without noteworthy moments with the Triple concerto for harpsichord, flute, violin, strings, and basso continuo in A minor, BWV 1044, a piece with which they must bring out moments of great beauty, precision, and intensity for each of the solo instruments, but once again the flute did not offer more than a very meager possibility of hearing and the communion between the three solo instruments emerged as a rehearsal, lacking soul.

It was not a good concert, with an encore included, a correct adaptation and interpretation of the Concerto for three harpsichords in D minor, by Bach, of course. The stars were not favorable. Sometimes it happens, but one swallow does not make a summer.