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CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW
March 5, 2006
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By Rebekah Ahrendt
On a stormy Sunday afternoon, San Francisco's St. Gregory of Nyssa provided a pleasant refuge in which to hear beautiful music. The California Bach Society under the direction of Suzanne Elder Wallace presented a program of music from the time of King James I of England. Her great skill combined with the talents of the ensemble resulted in a very professional presentation by this group of talented amateurs.
The concert featured consort songs and anthems by John Dowland, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons. After the first piece, Elder Wallace explained that the music on the program was not written for professionals but for enlightened amateurs. As she has an entire chamber choir of such highly skilled dilettantes, she decided not to hire the customary soloists but to let her own musically educated amateurs sing by themselves.
England in the early 17th century saw an increased interest in music making amongst the middle classes. A brief flowering of music printing in the first decades of the century fueled that fire. As composers discovered, flexible, intimate works like songs and anthems tended to sell well, as they were appropriate to domestic performance. The consort song was especially popular. Designed for one or more voices with obbligato accompaniment — often played by that most popular of homey English instruments, the viol — consort songs could be performed in a variety of ways by a variety of forces.
In keeping with this tradition, the concert featured a four-part viol consort. Gambists Peter Hallifax, Julie Jeffrey, Elisabeth Reed, and William Skeen played gracefully, both in support of the singers and in obbligato sections. Their enthusiasm matched that of the choir and director Elder Wallace. The flexibility of the music was made evident by varying the number of voices performing the secular songs on the first half of the program. Songs like Dowland's Come again, sweet love and Can she excuse my wrongs? began with soloists then gradually added more voices until the whole group was singing, accompanied by a consort of four viols. This added variety to the strophic settings and gave many members of the group the chance to show off their solo chops. The full group was featured a capella in Dowland's charming What poor astronomers and Byrd's Upon a summer's day. Their intonation was extremely good, and the combined sound of the voices was pleasing. Where the group really excelled, however, was in the music of Orlando Gibbons. Two lush secular songs closed the first half of the program, and the entire second half was devoted to Gibbons. Of the composers on the program, he was the only Protestant and the only one to have grown up in a completely Protestant environment. He was also central to the musical establishment of James I, having first taken up a court appointment upon James' accession, an appointment that ended with the composer's sudden death shortly after the crowning of Charles I.
Gibbons' sacred anthems are glorious. The group presented a selection of full anthems, performed by full choir, and verse anthems, where verses for solo voice and accompaniment alternate with passages for full choir. I was especially excited to hear my favorite verse anthem, This is the record of John, which the ensemble performed extremely well. Two particularly joyous performances closed the concert. The eight-part anthem O clap your hands demonstrated the choir's ability to handle complicated polyphonic textures with elegance and grace. Gibbons' welcome song Do not repine, fair sun, written for the king's tour of Scotland in 1617, was a welcome closer, in which soloists and choir provided light on such a gloomy day. Elder Wallace was the picture of poise throughout. Her dignified and dynamic direction brought out the very best in her singers. Her knowledge of the repertory and wise programming choices helped make this one of the best concerts I've seen the California Bach Society give, even without the help of “professional” singers. The demeanor of the singers, the grace of the director, and the skill of the instrumentalists made for beautiful music — a professional concert if I've ever seen one.
(Rebekah Ahrendt holds the artist's diploma in viola da gamba and historical performance practice from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Currently, she is a graduate student in historical musicology at UC Berkeley.)
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