La Follia

Saturday, October 11, 1997
First English Lutheran Church

If ever a concert invoked the true meaning of Baroque, it was La Follia's pre-Halloween "A Medley of Madnesse." These musical scholars have always had a knack for exhuming bizarre music from the nooks and crannies of the 17th and 18th centuries, but this occasion uncovered some even stranger oddities from those bad boys of the Baroque. Pancrace Royer's schizophrenic "Vertigo" set the tone with frantic, pouncing chords and zinging scales that suddenly would soften to genteel delight. It was played angrily -- and charmingly -- by harpsichordist Keith Womer.

Contorted chromatic rumblings, croaking toads and hissing snakes were drawn from several songs and arias of Henry Purcell. A musical rendering by Marin Marais of a gallbladder operation -- without anesthetic and with original instruments -- was narrated vividly by baritone and KUT eclecticist John Aielli

And no Baroque concert on a stormy night would be complete without Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, played with more than the customary amount of ornamentation by organist William Davis.

As usual, La Follia performed with wit and authority. Some standout moments included the gamba and flute duets between Barbara Coeyman and Marcus McGuff in Rameau's "La Cupis," several imitative duets between recordist Dell Hollingsworth and McGuff, and mezzosoprano Stephanie Prewitt's impeccable period stylings in Purcell's fervent "When I Am Laid in Earth," which held the audience in a moment of reflective silence before an outburst of applause.

Michael Huebner
Austin American-Statesman
October 14, 1997