This article is reprinted with the permission of the author and The Spokesman-Review.
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The Northwest Bach Festival crossed the Rhine into French musical territory Wednesday with a chamber music concert whose qualities made the trip worthwhile.
The Bach family was represented with three fine works by Johann Sebastian and his son Carl Phillipp Emanuel, but the concert was clearly a French victory.
Ilton Wjuniski - despite the Polish name, a French harpsichordist - was at the center of things, playing every work on the program. I have said it before, and I will say it again: Wjuniski is the best harpsichordist I know. His ability to make this instrument convey a wide range of emotional expression is unrivaled. So is his ability to partner other instrumentalists and singers.
What the harpsichord does most easily with its keyboard-operated plucked sound is provide energy and excitement to music - often sounding like an enormous guitar gone mad. What Wjuniski was able to do was enable the audience to visualize the quiet delicacy of Sister Monique, share the sadness of "L'attendrissante" and smile at the miniature windmills on a revolving music box in Francois Couperin's Suite No. 18.
Wjuniski's ability to give individuality to the shortest sections of music turned each of the variations of Jean-Phillippe Rameaus'a "Gavotte variee" into a character piece worthy of those talented street artists who can produce a caricature with a few strokes of pencil.
Margriet Tindemans proved a perfect partner for Wjuniski. Her playing of the viola da gamba was at its expressive best in Marin Marais' "Tombeau pour Mr. de Ste. Colombe." Movie buffs may remember Sainte Colombe and Marais as teacher and pupil in the film "Tous les Matins du Mond."
Tindemans and Wjuniski brought great intensity to the heavy sighs and occasional heaving sobs of Marais' homage to his master.
The pair made it great fun to try to identify the personality traits of Antoine Forqueray's four colleagues in his Suite No. 10, such as the sprightly but gruff "Bouron" and the high strung, tempermental "Leclair."
Tindemans and Wjuniski were equally at home with the Bach styles of father and son in J.S. Bach's Sonata in G minor and in the Andante from C.P.E. Bach's Sonata in C major. The finale of the latter work was the evening's welcomed encore.
Robert Honeysucker, a bass-baritone with a commanding low register and elegant diction, joined the Tendemans- Wjuniski team for an aria from J.S. Bach's Cantata "Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort" and Antenor's "Storm" monologue from Rameau's opera "Dardanus." Honeysucker's pitch was sometimes vague and the tone cloudy in the upper range, but his characterization of the love-sick Antenor - not knowing whether to fear more the storm, the dreaded sea monster or love - was very impressive.
By Travis Rivers
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