Camarada Celebrates Händel at The Conrad
By Ken Herman, San Diego Story
San Diego’s ambitious chamber ensemble Camarada presented What’s Your Händel? Saturday at The Conrad in La Jolla, a concert devoted mainly to music by George Frideric Handel. Under the adroit direction of Camarada Artistic Director and flutist Beth Ross Buckley, nine of San Diego’s finest musicians tipped their collective hat to the instrumental genius of Handel.
Much as I enjoy a good Handel feast, the two works by other composers on the program made stronger impressions: Quintette Instrumental by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, a rhapsodic late work (1957) by Villa-Lobos that features the harp, and a recent song cycle by contemporary composer Jordan Kuspa Fire Flowers.
The Villa-Lobos quintet is a substantial three-movement chamber work that features engaging virtuoso parts for the flute, played with customary elan by Beth Ross Buckley, and the harp, played with great flair by Elena Mashkovtseva. In this piece, the composer deftly balances soaring lines with a decidedly Romantic arch and a neoclassical harmonic palette with just enough dissonance to give his style edge. In the slow center movement, cellist Lars Hoefs, violinist David Buckley, and violist Travis Maril offered dulcet cantilenas to complement the vivacity of the harp and flute.
Jordan Kuspa’s Fire Flowers, a set of three songs on poems by Edna St.Vincent Millay, Emily Pauline Johnson, and Louise Bogan, charts an emotionally probing commentary on mortality. Tasha Hokuao Koontz’s gleaming soprano and insightful textual declamation matched the composer’s persuasive melodic invention, generously supported by pianist Dana Burnett and string players Travis Maril and David Buckley. Koontz is well-known to San Diego Opera audiences, notably for her superb Donna Anna in the company’s successful Don Giovanni production a year ago at Civic Theatre. Since that production Koontz made her Metropolitan Opera debut this past fall in Golijov’s Ainadamar. In addition to Kuspa’s recent work, Koontz also offered three familiar Handel opera arias.
Elena Mashkovtseva gave a scintillating account of Handel’s only Harp Concerto, Op. 4, No. 6, HWV 290, from her bracing thematic exposition to her bravura traversal of the composer’s extravagant cadenza that connected the slow middle movement to the vibrant finale. To get additional mileage from this robust concerto, Handel also arranged it as an organ concerto, but it was thrilling to hear his original concept of the work in such capable hands.
Handel’s Trio Sonata in G Minor, Op. 2, No. 5, HWV 390A flourished with masterful performances by flutist Beth Ross Buckley, violinist David Buckley, and strong basso continuo support from cellist Lars Hoefs and Dana Burnett on keyboard.
The composer designated his D Minor Concerto, Op. 7, No. 4, HWV 309, for either organ or harpsichord, but Camarada presented it as a piano concerto with flute and string quartet. In spite of Dana Burnett’s technical aplomb, the imbalance between the piano and modest accompanying instruments did Handel no favors. The mighty Steinway concert grand obliterated the modest texture of those five instrumentalists and distorted the lithe dialogue the composer intended for this work.
This concert was presented by Camarada on February 1, 2025, at La Jolla’s Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center.