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EARLY MUSIC Surprise Package December 13, 2002
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By Anna Carol Dudley
And now for something entirely different: the California Bach Society makes
its contribution to the holiday season — neither Bach nor Handel, but a
Christmas Vespers made up of music published by Claudio Monteverdi while he
was maestro di cappella at St. Mark's in Venice. Friday's performance at
St. Mark's in Berkeley, attended by a large and dripping audience, began
with an announcement by director Warren Stewart that it was also raining in
Venice.
Five Biblical psalms are used in a Vespers service, and Stewart's
performance used the psalm sequence appropriate to Christmas Eve: Ps.109, Dixit Dominus; Ps.110, Confitebor; Ps.111, Completi sunt; Ps.112, Laudate pueri; and Ps.116, Laudate Dominum. Each psalm was prefaced by a chanted versicle, generally introduced by a
solo celebrant leading in the choir. Bass Hugh Davies was as usual the
excellent celebrant; the choir has also become adept at chanting as if in
one voice.
A quintet consisting of Davies, sopranos Ruth Escher and Andrea Fullington,
and tenors Scott Whitaker and Mark Mueller served as both soloists and
section leaders, providing a solid core of choral sound as well as
considerable virtuoso solo singing. The two tenors were a particularly
tight ensemble, with the two sopranos not far behind in acing the often
florid duetting passages. Elisabeth Eliassen was the alto soloist.
The balance of voices was excellent throughout, both in
the choir and in the solo quintet.
The five psalms, followed by a hymn and the Magnificat, were written for varying combinations of voices and instruments. The opening Dixit Dominus and the closing Magnificat were in full concertato style, the chorus alternating with soloists, two obbligato violins accompanying the singers. Other psalms were primarily choral or primarily solo, some with the violins and some without. I was particularly drawn to the Beatus Vir. The first tenor section led off strongly with the opening theme, which was then echoed by the second tenors — a theme which recurred later in the psalm. The choir did some fine word painting, e.g. on "irascetur" (irascible) and "peribit" (perish), and there were some lovely expressive dynamic changes. I liked the consistency of vowel sound, including a particularly attractive use of the u vowel. Other nicely executed touches were the choral "Sanctum et terribile" (holy and terrible) in the Confitebor tibi, the chromatic downward "misericordia" (mercy) in the Laudate Dominum, and Ruth Escher's florid solos in the Confitebor. The hymn, “Christe Redemptor omnium,” was beautifully sung by the solo tenors and bass, accompanied by the violins. Scott Whitaker's voice on first tenor was especially attractive — a lyrical, floating, sweet effortless sound. Following 17th-century practice, Warren Stewart substituted instrumental pieces for the sung antiphons following each psalm. Mostly trio sonatas, they were composed by Giovanni Legrenzi (maestro di cappella at St. Mark's later than Monteverdi). Stewart, an accomplished baroque cellist as well as a conductor, moved to his instrument for each of these pieces. An orgy of tuning preceded each one, perhaps in honor of the inclement weather, somewhat interrupting the flow of the Vespers service. Of the five Legrenzi pieces, I rather favored the second and the fifth. Violinists David Wilson and Ondine Young joined Stewart and organist Katherine Heater in neatly dispatched playing.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco StateUniversity [lecturer emerita] and director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
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