It seems music-loving Latvians can not get enough of live concerts. Set in the magnificent recently restored 18th-century Rundāle Palace outside Riga, the International Festival of Early Music offered a smorgasbord of Baroque music bonbons over the course of a lengthy afternoon and evening. A concert for children called “Frog becoming Princess” with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau kicked off the musical marathon.
This was followed by a curious combination of early Spanish and Latin American music given by the Ancient Music Ensemble La Cetra d’Orfeo from Belgium in the Gold Hall reception room, capacity 380. The ensemble’s founder and leader Michel Keustermans wowed the audience by reading an opening speech in Latvian – no small feat of linguistic ability. He also made further explanations as the program progressed in heavily French-accented English which seemed to confuse rather than clarify.
16th- and 17th-Spanish composers such as Andrès Flores, Diego Ortiz and Juan del Encina were probably about as familiar to the Latvian audience as Mozart would be to a Martian, but the music-loving locals absorbed everything offered with wild enthusiasm. There was some very fine viola da gamba playing by Ronan Kernoa and sensitive work on theorba and vihuela by Philippe Malfeyt. A multitude of Baroque flutes were played by Michel Keustermans himself. The only weak component to the ensemble was the singing of Marie de Roy who tended to be a bit shrill and had serious intonation problems, especially at the top of the range. Many of the pieces in the relatively long programme were complemented by mostly traditional Spanish choreography from two dancers, Maria-Angeles Hurtado and Jaime Puente who miraculously managed not to fandango onto the flutes lying on the floor.
Because of the clamour for endless encores, there was barely 15 minutes for many of the audience to scamper over to the superb stuccoed White Hall of the palace (capacity 460) for the next event. This was the Coin du Roi ensemble from Milan who gave what was probably the most interesting concert of the Festival. Opening with a delightfully translucent reading of Vivaldi’s better known concerto for Lute in D Major, soloist Mauro Pinciaroli played with sensitivity and subtle rubato. Maestro Christian Frattima led the small ensemble with delicate phrasing and well-judged piano-forte-piano dynamic modulations. The only distressing aspect of the short concerto was some alarmingly poor intonation from the first violin.
Bach’s D Major harpsichord concerto, which is essentially a re-write of his earlier E Major violin concerto, was another more familiar item on the programme. Again, the Coin du Roi ensemble excelled in their customary crisp rhythmic playing, especially the lower strings and bass continuo. Soloist Luka Oberti displayed a solid keyboard technique with unforced rubato.