May 30, 2006
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Piffaro is an engaging Renaissance troupe based in Philadelphia, and last Wednesday -- laden with a small truckload of shawms, sackbuts, lutes, dulcians, bagpipes, krumhorns, recorders and so on -- they somehow made it down to the National Gallery of Art and, frankly, blew the place away.  This was one of the most refreshing concerts the NGA’s put on this year -- due partly to Piffaro’s complete lack of pointy-headedness, partly to the straightforward charm of 16th Century instrumental music, and partly just to the wildly colorful sounds that these instruments emit.  Who can resist the woody bleating of a flock of recorders, or the raucous cry of the angry shawm?  Not me.

So with ears all perked up, Piffaro embarked on a sometimes raucous, sometimes ethereal tour through Renaissance Europe.  Guillaume Dufay was there in two elegant pieces for shawms,  slide trumpet and sackbut (an early form of the trombone – but you knew that already), as was Jacob Obrecht in some impossibly delicate songs for lute, harp and recorders.  The German Georg Foster contributed a vibrant, unbuttoned work for krumhorns, and the Frenchman Thoinot Arbeau kicked in an “Official Bransle” (pronounced “brawl”), a country dance that lutenist Grant Herreid summed up nicely as “high-falutin’ composed polyphony.”

There were a dozen more works on the program, including several Spanish works for harp – played on a full-sized Renaissance instrument that was one of the most beautiful objects you could ever hope to see – and despite an obstreperous bagpipe or two, the playing was relentlessly virtuosic, and the music surprising and always satisfying. We need more of this in our ears, and in fact should be getting some in June, when the Washington Early Music Festival launches. Can’t wait.