By R.M. Campbell
Baroque Northwest is one of those small ensembles in Seattle that lives a little below the public radar but sustains itself with evocative programs, good music-making and a faithful audience.
Its concert this weekend at Trinity Parish Church on First Hill is a case in point. Its title was “The Scottish Harp With Maxine Eilander,” a South African-born harpist with an international career who now lives in Seattle. Not only was the concert enlightening, it was often charming, even sweet and a complete pleasure. It was a smart move on the part of the quartet of musicians who comprise the ensemble — founding artistic director Kim Pineda, Elizabeth C.D. Brown, Gus Denard and Ronnee Fullterton — to invite Eilander to be a guest artist in its February concert. She has had a wide-ranging career on two continents with groups such as Tafelmusik, Tragicomedia, Teatro Lirico and Les Voix Humaines and has played in various productions of Baroque operas and chamber music. Several recordings are to her credit, including the excellent “Handel’s Harp,” released late last year. Two of its numbers — “Lascia ch’io pianga,” from “Rinaldo,” and “Symphony,” from “Saul” — were among the highlights of the concert. She is among several musicians who have moved to Seattle from Europe, including Margriet Tindemans, in the audience, and Stephen Stubbs, Eilander’s husband and a native of the city. She is the managing director of the Seattle Academy of Opera and a faculty member of the Cornish College of the Arts. The owner of a highly developed technique, Eilander is an accomplished musician who brings life to whatever she plays, making old music fresh and obscure music familiar. She is obviously a scholar but never lets knowledge and scholarly details get in the way of a vivid performance.
There was plenty of Scottish music on the program just as there were plenty of opportunities to hear Eilander. But neither was exclusive. The program began in a little-known Irish composer Burk Thumoth, whose settings of Scottish airs are among his best-known works. “Mary Scot,” “The Lass of Paty’s Mill” particularly and “Tweed Side,” which represents some of his most attractive and appealing work, opened the concert. Excerpts from Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen” followed. Handel’s G Minor Sonata closed the first half in a virtuosic way with Fullerton demonstrating his own brilliance and the fluent genius of the composer. He played the viola da gamba and Baroque violin in the concert and is conversant with about a half dozen others instruments, according to the program.
Eilander returned to the solo light with “Fantassie” by William Kinloch, one of the last composers to serve Mary, Queen of the Scots. It is a curious piece, not quite as immediate as other music on the program but a solid platform on which the harpist could display her technical wares and musical sensibility, which she did. One of the most charming and effective collection of tunes was by the Irish harper Turlough Carolan. They oozed sweetness, sometimes bittersweet and sometimes piquant, but always affectionate and endearing. They were played as such. To conclude, the concert returned to Scotland for the music of the 18th-century composer Niel Gow, with pieces such as “Niel Gow’s Lament for the Death of His Second Wife,” “Willie’s Auld Trews,” “Billy at the Bridge” and “The Belfast Almanac.” They are strikingly varied and were given remarkably individual performances.
