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Leaf Music5
Concerto Antico: à travers un miroir fumé
Jaap Nico Hamburger, composer; Orchestre classique de Montréal; Ensemble Caprice
Leaf Music, April 2023
Jaap Nico Hamburger brilliantly explores centuries of musical history in a powerful 11 minutes on Concerto Antico.
Hamburger suggests in the album’s booklet that just as Nostradamus “stared into a smoke covered mirror to look at the future,” Hamburger himself is “star(ing) into the mirror of our times to look at the past.” Split into five concise tracks, Concerto Antico addresses modern, romantic, baroque, and classical eras through a variety of styles.
An airy flute conjures the image of the smoky mirror in Introduction. The music sways, with a mystical and uncertain air that transforms when the violin’s melodies clash with the flute in the second track. This progression contrasts the abstract and sometimes mechanical features of modern music with the raw, powerful sounds of a more romantic idiom.
The instruments find a comfortable balance in the third track. Their extreme power is restrained, as they gracefully move between grand, self-assured flourishes and peaceful contemplation. This baroque style is juxtaposed against the frantic clacking sound that appears late in the track, which references the need to experiment with emotion that precipitated the romantic era. The fourth movement, then, is more restrained, as it introduces a harpsichord and a triple melody, making a nod to baroque dance forms.
The last track pulls everything together with a triumphant trumpet, deep brass, and jovial violin before making reference to the album’s first track. Here, Hamburger brings the past back to meet the present, celebrating both the advancement of musical composition, and its historical origins.
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
