English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.
This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).
Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.
'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.
‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.
The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.
With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.
Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.
"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."
Palestrina led from the front, literally and figuratively, in this performance at Wigmore Hall which placed devotion to the saints at its heart, with Saints Peter, Paul, Catherine of Alexandria, Bartholomew and the Virgin Mary all musically honoured by The Cardinall’s Musick and their director Andrew Carwood.
Palestrina’s musical devotions to Saints Peter and Paul opened with the composer’s six-voice motet, Tu es Petrus, and the parody mass which it inspired. With just a single voice to each part, Carwood generated a strong sense of forward movement and exploited the vibrant luminosity that Palestrina’s ‘antiphonal’ effects create, as the three higher voices alternate with the three lower strands in the opening phrases - an effect which reappears in the movements of the mass. There was a gradual blossoming as the music drove towards the confident statement, ‘Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum’ (And I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven), but the mood remained buoyant and fresh. Though the six ‘solo’ voices cannot produce a rich sonorous blend such as might swell around a Baroque basilica during a liturgical ritual, bathing the congregation in an inspiring wash of resonant fullness, the differentiation of the individual lines, each sung with strong character, enabled Carwood to subtly highlight individual lines and phrases, which simultaneously injected muscularity into the evolving polyphony, with the brightness of the soprano and alto adding further ‘uplift’.
The movements of the Mass were interspersed with Gregorian chants for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul - Introitus, Alleluia Tu es Petrus, Offertorium - Constitues eos and Communio Tu es Petrus - sung by tenor and countertenor voices from the rear of Wigmore Hall.
The Cardinall’s Musick deliver their repertory directly and without affectation, and the six voices invited an intimacy that is entirely appropriate for Wigmore Hall. But, I could not help reflecting that this music might not be similarly apt for the venue; it was not intended for ‘performance’ but for participation, in a spiritual sense, and would not have been delivered in a ‘static’ manner but rather during the ritual processions and acts of the liturgy, the sound moving through the architectural spaces with wondrous and elevating impact.
That said, The Cardinall’s Musick sang the Mass with assurance and some sense of the spiritual engagement it was designed to inspire. The interweaving of the even lines of the Kyrie resolved into the purity of a shining cadential ‘eleison’, the SSA group within the ensemble conveying heaven-aspiring lucidity. A light flowing bass line in the Gloria created relaxed momentum, though I felt that in this and other of the longer movements, greater variety of dynamics and colour would have communicated a stronger response to the text. Carwood demonstrated clear insight into the formal structure of the movements though, producing a measured sense of acceleration in anticipation of the ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’. And, the same flexibility was evident and put to good effect in the Credo; the expansiveness achieved with the phrase ‘Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto,/ Ex Maria virgine, et homo factus’ (And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man) was powerful. In the Sanctus and Benedictus, the tender unfolding conveyed peace and assurance, and again the strong but sweet bass line illuminated ‘Hosanna in excelsis’ from below, with the voices finding surprisingly translucence with the pronouncement of the blessing itself. With the Agnus Dei came a lowering of tessitura, suggesting the arrival of a point of rest, which was reassuringly achieved in the six-voice echo of the ‘Ite missa est’ (the Mass is ended).
More Palestrina followed the interval, with Saint Paul taking his turn to be venerated in the composer’s ‘Magnus sanctus Paulus’. Here, the power of the full eight-voice ensemble made itself felt in the decorative floridity of the appeal, ‘Qui te elegit, ut digni efficiamur gratia Dei’ (so that we may be worthy by the grace of God); when repeated in the concluding episode, the muscular counterpoint, driven from the bottom, truly conveyed a striving to be ‘worthy’.
Saints Mark, Bartholomew and Andrew were honoured in music by composers who are not such household names. Giovanni Bassano was employed in Venice as a wind player and became leader of the instrumental ensemble at San Marco Basilica. The rich homophony of the close of his ‘O rex gloriae’ a5 (published 1598) resolved into a lovely fluid Alleluia which wound its way expressively through the syllables. The four-part ‘Sanctus Bartholomaeus’ (published 1586) of Jacob Handl was followed by Thomas Crecquillon’s ‘Andreas Christus famulus’ (1546). Little is known of Crecquillon’s life, though he was associated with the chapel of the Emperor Charles V for ten or more years from 1540 and was sufficiently esteemed for a major retrospective of his motets to be published after his death (c.1557). Crecquillon’s eight-voice motet ‘Andreas Christi famulus’ was composed for the annual meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1546 and was for a time judged to be the work of Cristóbal de Morales. Here, as the contrapuntal glories extended the compass, the tuning was less consistently secure. Moreover, in this less familiar repertory, the singers were understandably more score-bound and sometimes lacking in animation.
Sacred music from Spain in honour of the Virgin Mary concluded the programme. Tomás Luis de Victoria’s ‘Vidi speciosam’ a6 (1572) was beautifully sung. The gently restful repetitions - ‘Flores rosarum et lilia convallium’ (She was surrounded by roses and lilies of the valley) - conjured the sweet fragrance of the Virgin who ascends from streams of water, as beautiful as a dove. Here, the singers captured the drama and spirituality of music, moving through the sublime harmonic progressions with an animation sometimes lacking elsewhere. Carwood sat at the side during the four-voice ‘Virgo prundetissima’ (1555) of Francisco Guerrero, a prolific composer who was born in Seville in 1528.
Sebastián de Vivanco (c.1551-1622) was born in Ãvila at roughly the same time as Victoria and has been rather overshadowed by the latter’s achievements and renown. However, with the full complement of voices reassembled, The Cardinall’s Musick showed us that, while less experimental than Victoria, Vivanco could craft imposing counterpoint. The ‘Magnificat octavi toni’ (published 1607) accumulated majesty through the evolving parts, building to a series of statements of comfort and certainty: ‘Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est’ (For he that is might has done great things for me), ‘Suscepit Israel puerum suum:/Recordatus misericordiae’ (Concerning Israel, his child: he remembered his mercifulness). The blending of voices in the final Gloria Patri et Filio was reassuringly resonant and firm.
Despite my minor misgivings about the partnership of repertory and context, this was a beautifully sung programme - and a well-conceived one too, engagingly introduced and explained by Andrew Carwood. The Cardinall’s Musick will present another opportunity to enter the company of heaven in January next year , returning to Wigmore Hall to perform works focusing on Mary Magdalene and other saints.
Claire Seymour
In the Company of Heaven : The Cardinall’s Musick (Andrew Carwood, director)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Motet Tu es Petrus, Missa Tu es Petrus (interspersed with sections from Gregorian Chant Propers for the Feast of SS Peter and Paul), Magnus Sanctus Paulus a8; Giovanni Bassano - O Rex gloriae; Jacob Handl - Sanctus Bartholomeus; Thomas Crecquillon - Andreas Christi famulus; Tomás Luis da Victoria - Vidi speciosam; Francisco Guerrero - Virgo prudentissima; Sebastián de Vivanco - Magnificat octavi toni.