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EARLY MUSIC REVIEW
Voces Musicales
December 17, 2006
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Early Chestnuts of the Season By Bruce Lamott
Even early music has chestnuts to roast on an open fire at this time of year, and "A Renaissance Christmas," performed by Voces Musicales on Sunday, included most of them. Presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society as its holiday offering, this vocal quartet (along with a small instrumental complement) sang a variety of Spanish and English seasonal music to an enthusiastic audience at San Francisco's Church of St. John the Evangelist.
The Spanish Cancioneros yielded some rare gems, such as the haunting and stately Tres morillas, enhanced by the lute traceries of David Tayler. The lyrical Ay! luna was also a perfect foil to the lively syncopations of Gozate virgen sagrada. Victoria's O magnum mysterium and Ave Maria — Renaissance "chestnuts" popularized by ensembles ranging from Noah Greenberg's New York Pro Musica to the Roger Wagner Chorale — were somewhat monochromatically performed, with little new to offer. With the opportunity of one-on-a-part performance and an early music audience on hand, it might have been a fine time to demonstrate some of the virtuosic ornamental "abuses" to which these pieces were subjected later in their century. But why Byrd's Passiontide Ave verum corpus (as incongruous as a crucifix in a crèche) appeared on a Christmas concert is anyone's guess; that its gory text was omitted from the program translations suggests that the performers, too, knew that it was out of season.
The sound of the vocal quartet itself was quite a "mixed consort" of dissimilar timbres (think treble viol, alto recorder, tenor shawm, and bass sackbut) that were most evident in the duets of the anonymous 15th century English carols. Christopher LeCluyse's reedy tenor gave a vigorous brightness to Now Make We Merthe with Hugh Davies' resonant bass. It was less successful with the more lyric soprano of Laura Heimes and alto Stephanie Prewitt. The latter has a lustrous middle voice, but was at a disadvantage in low parts more suited to a falsettist, such as Byrd's Puer natus est. These dissimilarities were especially pronounced in the various voice pairings of the Josquin Ave Maria.
There's no question that this is an ensemble with superb musicianship, keen intonation, and impeccable diction. Yet there was so little communication with the audience that this listener had the feeling of observing a recording session. Why should we accept any less personal engagement from a vocal quartet than we would from a lieder singer? To be sure, the intricate Renaissance polyphony and text-laden strophic settings are a challenge, but Davies and Prewitt scarcely raised an eyebrow, even in the refrains of such warhorses as E la don, don and Riu, riu, chiu. The notable exception was soprano Laura Heimes, whose sensitive delivery of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day not only transcended the potential tedium of endless stanzas, but also physically broke through the barricade of music stands into which her colleagues gazed so intently. Her singing was radiant, tastefully "colorized" by the instrumental ensemble of David Tayler, lute; Hanneke van Proosdij, recorders; and Peter Maund, percussion. Tayler also contributed two gentle lute solos to the program, and van Proosdij performed an anonymous Spanish organ voluntary filled with chromatic surprises. Maund's riff à la Buddy Rich on the tambourine prior to the finale brought the concert to a rousing close.
(Bruce Lamott is director of the Philharmonia Chorale, the professional chorus of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and was formerly choral director of the Carmel Bach Festival. He teaches music history at San Francisco University High School and the S.F. Conservatory of Music.)
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