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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
December 10, 2005
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By Michelle Dulak Thomson
There is something about the 17th century that was particularly congenial to the composition of Christmas music. Partly it's the new interest by "serious" composers in song and dance — not the elaborate chansons of the previous century, or its formal dances, but something closer to street balladry and minstrelsy. Sixteenth century composers didn't hesitate to employ these elements, but they just didn't mix them often with more solemn or serious music.
Seventeenth century composers did, intermingling the high, tragic style and the commonest popular song. And what better way is there to approach Christmas in music? There are kings paying reverence to the One King, but there are also rude shepherds who get the news first and beat everyone to the manger. Later Christmas music may do more to emphasize the pomp and splendor of Christ, but those two incongruous ideas, of a helpless baby and of "the unknown strength that sustains the stars" (in G. K. Chesterton's words), sat side by side in the 1600s as they have not since.
Other Bay Area early-music ensembles visit the 17th century from time to time, but Magnificat is the only one of its size that practically dwells there, and it seems to be even more thoroughly at home with each performance. Certainly Saturday's performance at St. Mark's in Berkeley was a marvel of ease, balance, and brilliance. There seemed no hitches anywhere, but it was certainly not because the ensemble had made things easy for itself.
The meat of the program was Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Pastorale sur la naissance de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ (Pastorale on the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ). The plot is what you would expect, apart from one thing: The shepherds of this tale aren't peacefully and unconcernedly tending their flocks, but rather are in anguish over their own sinfulness and pleading for release from it. An angel appears, saying that the word of God is born. An old shepherd ("L'ancien") questions the angel in considerable detail, and ultimately the shepherds believe, travel to worship Christ, and come back home rejoicing. Director Warren Stewart's notes make clear that the piece went through at least two revisions. What Magnificat performed is made up of parts of the original and the subsequent two changes. This is the sort of "syncretic" version that spent two decades in the doghouse as "inauthentic," but has lately been allowed out again, for which I for one am glad. It's a real shame, when confronted with a number of revisions of a major piece, not to be able to keep wonderful music in one version that was cut subsequently, or for that matter to forgo wonderful music that was written afterward. Better yet, Stewart interspersed French carols, noëls, periodically throughout the Pastorale. This was brilliant. It made the connection between the lighter parts of the Pastorale and the carols that were the native medium of Christmas joy. But also it was an opportunity to sneak in, not only some of the carols Charpentier made arrangements of himself (the Noëls sur les instruments), but two more that he didn't. These came from anonymous French carol-books, and they were startling. You'd think that Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle would have something to do with "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella," and you'd be right. But the tune isn't the one familiar to English speakers until you reach the end of the verse, and even there it's not what we know. The really familiar songs are mostly recognizable — to Americans, at any rate — by virtue of Charpentier's own most-performed work, the Messe de Minuit de Noël, the Christmas Mass made almost entirely out of French carols. (The four Charpentier-arranged noëls were sung, with the instrumentation artfully varied verse by verse.) The instrumental team, as ever with Magnificat, was terrific, with Rob Diggins leading as first violin. Everything was stylish and in proportion. As for the Pastorale itself, I can only say that such ravishing music deserves a like perfomance, and got one. I can't speak for the singers' French, apart from saying that I could follow it well enough in the program book. But as far as the music goes, Catherine Webster's Angel and Ruth Escher's Second Angel were eloquent, and in combination with fellow-soprano Phoebe Jevtovic, as they were in several of the brief choruses, the three were formidable. On the men's side, Hugh Davies had most of the solo time to himself as "L'ancien," but the many small choruses made clear that tenors Paul Elliott and Daniel Hutchings were on a level with their colleagues. It's very rare to hear ensemble singing, with single voices, of this quality anywhere. Count us blessed that we get to hear it many times a year. (Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.)
Magnificat returns at the end of January with selections from Heinrich Schütz's Symphonia Sacra II.
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