Musical pirates entertain, educate

Pirates conjure certain images, but what about pirates in a concert of 18th century music?

“Avast, me hearties, careful not to invert your mordent on the devil’s interval. Arrr-peggiate instead.”

No, nothing beyond some “hook” bowing for the violins.

The premise of Allegro’s Pirate program was that two of our most highly revered composers of the Baroque – Bach and Handel – stole material. OK, borrowed.

There are only 12 notes and a limited number of chord progressions, so certain similarities are bound to crop up here and there. But we’re talking about the wholesale lifting of melodies, along with accompaniment in unmistakable acts of recycling.

In the good old days before recorded sound, strong ideas were copied so that they could be heard more than once, and it was considered an act of praise to honor another composer by using his material – as long as credit was given. The thought was that a good tune should not go to waste.

The musical portions of the evening consisted of a lively mix of light chamber music and excerpts to document the acts of plagiarism. Most entertaining were the more famous examples of borrowing. Those with spurious pasts included the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” and the ever-popular “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” from his “Solomon.” The latter is oft-performed because of its infectious jubilation, and Allegro’s performance was suitably joyful and energetic from start to finish.

Each of these acts of piracy was introduced by playing an excerpt from the source material, followed by a performance of the heisted booty. The examples were introduced by the composers themselves. Handel was portrayed by Michael Caldwell; Bach by Max Mendez.

The narration was a fun and very informative addition. All music history lectures should be this entertaining. Signals got crossed at one point when the actors jumped the gun and chopped a minuet off the Handel “Concerto Grosso,” but nobody had to walk the plank.

Each character sang: Caldwell on the intentionally shaky and shivering “The Cold Genius Arises” and Mendez in two arias from Bach’s Cantata 82. Mendez has a wonderful voice I could listen to all night, but I would prefer to hear it without the high-pitched whine of someone’s hearing aid interfering.

There were many familiar tunes on the program, and all were rendered with aplomb. In a couple of noteworthy moments, the small string ensemble absolutely sang in Handel’s Overture to “Susanna,” and Keith Thomas floated his oboe as tastefully as was ever heard on the Marcello “Concerto.”