“Two Heinrichs & a Henry,” by M. P. Kennedy

“Two Heinrichs & a Henry,” by M. P. Kennedy

It’s not often that a mistake improves a performance. Earlier this month, when Los Angeles’s long-established early-music ensemble, Musica Angelica, performed Henry Purcell’s Fantasia Upon One Note, a hesitation by the violist when changing bows became one such moment. The Fantasia is, in fact, a fancy on one note. Purcell sustains a middle C throughout, and the violist’s hesitation on this note revealed how strange and unnatural this conceit is…