SACRED CANTATAS / Musica Fiata / Review

SACRED CANTATAS
Musica Fiata & La Capella Ducale
Esplanade Concert Hall
Thursday (5 August 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 August 2010.

Performance of baroque music in Singapore is as common as hen’s teeth. There is only one dedicated baroque group here, the amateur vocalists of Ab Oriente. Thus it was a massive shot to the arm when the Baroque in Singapore series arrived, presented by Musica Anima. Unfortunately, the cancellation of its last concert (due to volcanic ash fallout) and financial constraints dictated this to be the final concert for the year. But what a revelation it turned out to be.

Schütz & Scheidt

They look like twins, don't they?

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Samuel Scheidt (1585-1672) were pre-eminent German composers predating Bach and Handel by a century. A selection of their sacred vocal music was performed with sympathy and authenticity by this Cologne-based ensemble of four singers and seven musicians.

The instrumental combination was unusual, with three trombones, violin, organ and dulzian (an early bassoon), led by Musica Fiata’s founder Roland Wilson (below) performing a zink, a curved pipe played like a recorder but with the timbre of a trumpet. The sound was quaint but intimate, never drowning out the singers in various combinations.

Scheidt’s Freue Dich, quoted from Proverbs of the Old Testament, but was surprisingly sensual, rejoicing in the graceful curves of a young wife’s body. The pleasure expressed, while not overt, was quietly ecstatic. The two tenors, Andreas Post and George Poplutz, also blended prettily in Schütz’s Anima Mea Liquefacta Est and O Quam Tu Pulchra Est, where a lover’s voice and beautiful form inspired feelings of a desirous kind.

Serious vibes was provided by bass Wolf Matthias Friedrich, whose sonorous entreaties in Attendite, Popule Meus, a prophet’s call to pay heed, was contrasted with a father’s anguish in Fili Mi, Absalon, both by Schütz. In the latter where King David mourns his treasonous son’s death, the pain expressed was palpable.

An expectant exultation coloured soprano Monika Mauch’s solo in Schütz’s Paratum Cor Meum, Deus, where her light and crystal-clear voice rose on angel’s wings high above the instrumental accompaniment. Simply beautiful.

For the final valedictory number, both instrumentalists and singers came face to face for Scheidt’s Warum Betrübst Du Dich, a rhetorical question answered by reassurance with faith in God, closing the evening’s fare on a high. In a musical year dominated by Chopin and Mahler, a rare treat was afforded in the company of Schütz and Scheidt.

This concert in the Baroque in Singapore series was presented by Music Anima Entertainment.

BOLIVIAN BAROQUE / Florilegium & Bolivian Soloists / Review

BOLIVIAN BAROQUE
Florilegium & Bolivian Soloists
Esplanade Concert Hall
Thursday (14 January 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 January 2010.

Steering clear from the usual suspects of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the groundbreaking Baroque in Singapore series opened with a stiff dose of the obscure. British chamber group Florilegium with four Bolivian singers presented music from the Jesuit missions that operated deep in the Andes during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Indian natives were taught European music, composition and performance, resulting in a large corpus of works whose composers remain unknown or anonymous. Listening without preconceptions, these sounded much like Italian and continental music, without a trace of indigenous influences. Latin was used although some motets were sung in the Indian languages of the Chiquitos and Moxos.

However what distinguished was a lack of pretense and an unalloyed joy. The polyphony in Stella Coeli Extirpavit (Star Of Heaven Brought Forth) and Tota Pulchra (Mary Without Blemish) was uncomplicated, with all four voices (left) blending with a purity that was simple yet touching. In the secular number Si El Amor (If A Lover Falls Asleep), each singer took turns to sing a strophe followed by a chorus of Let Him Sleep, which lent a touch of the theatrical.

The solos were also impressive. Mezzo-soprano Gian-Carla Tisera negotiated treacherous Handelian runs in the florid motet Quis Me A Te (Who Will Part Me) while tenor Henry Villca exuded a casual, almost nonchalant, declaration of faith in Caima, Iyai Jesus (Today, Lord Jesus). Spinto-soprano Karina Troiano’s intimate refrain of thanksgiving in Aqui Ta Naqui Iyai (Here Our Father In Present) was hard to resist, contrasted with mezzo Katia Escalera’s fuller and voluptuous tone in an aria about food, In Hac Mensa (At This Table).

Escalera also starred Domenico Zipoli’s Beatus Vir (Blessed Is The Man), alternating lines beautifully with a chorus sung by her three colleagues. Blessed indeed was this Italian contemporary of J.S.Bach, a Jesuit missionary who ventured across the Atlantic and planted his roots in Argentina.

In between vocal numbers were trio sonatas from the 7-strong ensemble - two violins, baroque flute/recorder with Florilegium (left) director Ashley Solomon, and continuo. Their encore, an arrangement of a Bolivian folksong and variations, drew a standing ovation. This breath of fresh air deserved nothing less.