Brugge 6: A Perfect Storm - Françoise Lengellé

Sometimes Nature conspires against all odds. Sebastian Junger described in his book how the confluence of three lesser storms resulted in one "perfect storm" with devastating results. Françoise Lengellé's recital yesterday seemed to be at the eye of such a storm. I know her to be a marvelous musician, her program of Chambonnières, Louis Couperin, and d'Anglebert was as close to my dream concert as I could hope for, and the instrument she was performing on, a simply gorgeous instrument after the Versailles Ruckers and built by Andreas & Ann-Christin Kilström, was one of the best in the Exhibition.

However, other elements conspired against this performance. Whereas the Kamermuziekall worked well for Linda Nicholson's fortepiano concert, it swallowed the sound of the harpsichord; the Chapel of Our Lady of the Blind is so much better. To make matters worse, for one reason or the other, the harpscihord was in poor tune. This is always my personal nightmare: I have fussed with the tuning right before the concert many times only to have notes go bad. And, bad they went, particularly the 4' register, which was so bad that when she first used it, it caught her off-guard and she had to stop and start over (which she did with such good humor). Still, that 4', when used, grated on me, and I have no doubt on her. Finally--and this happens to every performer--it seemed to be something of an off day. I'm sure it didn't help to have her colleague Gustav Leonhardt in the front row and such a large expectant audience, on top of these other distractions.

And, so, it was a less-than-ideal performance, which is unfortunate, given that I don't have many opportunities to hear performers of this caliber. Still, Françoise Lengellé on a bad day is more than many lesser artists can aspire to in a lifetime. As I said, the program was perfection. It opened with a Pavane in c minor by Chambonnières, followed by a suite of his pieces in D. Chambonnières is often characterized as being historically important and one of the founders of the French school of harpsichord, but otherwise of lesser musical value than those who followed him. Lengellé convinces one otherwise: he is the master that others, such as Louis Couperin, drew upon.

However, when one comes to Louis Couperin, there is no doubt in my mind: he is one of the greatest of any period. I always wonder what would have come from him, had he not died so young. Lengellé drew a very nice selection of pieces in F, ending with a Chaconne that was played so well that I may have started others clapping when there were two more pieces in that set: two fantaisies that somehow I am unfamiliar with, and which I know have to go back and study, because in her hands they were very interesting.

The recital ended with a small set of pieces by d'Anglebert: three of his arrangements of the popular lute music of Vieux Gautier, and ending with the Tombeau de Chambonnières. This latter piece may be one of the most passionately romantic and evocative of the late 17th century. An apt end to this concert, which started off with Chambonnières. The audience, as usual at this festival, was hyper-enthusiastic. It seems that the culture here is not much different from America: people feel cheated if they don't get at least one extra piece. Personally, I hate to break the "balance" of a good program, and this program was as perfectly balanced for the repertoire as one could hope for.