Early Music: II

I know of no one in this country with so pure a voice as Miss Adele Addison. Or so beautifully controlled a voice. When she sings one realizes that, like some great dam, she is withholding tremendous power, and releasing only a pure and limpid rivulet of sound. Last night, Miss Addison sang arias from Handel's somewhat neglected L'Allegro and II Penseroso with the Cambridge Society for Early Music; and sang them as only she can.

Handel's L'Allegro and II Penseroso was written only a short time before the Messiah, but the guileless artifice of his musical imitations of Miltonic imagery, and the prankish innocence of its harmonies sound only distantly related to the Christmas oratorio. For this easy good humor, Miss Addison's most musical and least melancholy voice is eminently suited; not once did she encumber the music with leaden emotions foreign to its spirit, or dirty it with less than perfect phrasing and dynamics. Her coloratura in the incomparable "Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly" was remarkable for its clarity and restraint; and in the jolly "Orpheus himself may heave his head" her own humor was crisp and sparkling.

Sparkling, too, was the accompaniment of Wallace Woodworth and the Cambridge Festival Orchestra. Mr. Woodworth elicited a clear and confident performance from his small group: the attacks were precise, the phrasing decisive, the dynamics well modulated.

The second half of the evening added the redoubtable and often noisy Roger Voisin to the orchestra for a performance of J.S. Bach's Cantata 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. But under the severe direction of Mr. Woodworth, and before the marvel that is Miss Addison's voice, even Mr. Voisin's trumpet was subdued and melodious.

Mr. Woodworth distinguishes two separate moods in Cantata 51: the gladsome rejoicing of the first aria and the concluding Allelujal, and the quiet, more personal reflections of the second aria and chorale. Accordingly, the orchestra was made to dwindle to the bare continuo in this more intimate section, and Mr. Woodworth himself retired quietly to a vacant chair--somewhat disconcerting abdication in any other concert perhaps, but with Miss Addison as soloist (she who can quell Roger Voisin), there is no discontinuity. She moved from joy to introspection with assurance: and both halves of this bisected cantata joined smoothly into a commanding whole.

The program was spaced out with several hors d'oeuvres--sinfonias from Handel's Solomon (a rather obvious choice), and from two Bach contatas (allowing Mr. Voisin to earn his keep). These received a very competent performance from Mr. Woodworth and his orchestra, but one can question their inclusion in the program: Miss Addison needs no chaser.

For Miss Addison has provided this community with its most exciting musical evening in a good stretch. And under Mr. Woodworth's leadership the Cambridge Society for Early Music has turned itself into the most able concert group in the area.