San Francisco Classical Voice

Venetian Music for a New Century was the latest concert presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society, the new century referred to being the one that began 400 years ago. Two outstanding Renaissance ensembles performed this program, which I caught in Berkeley on Saturday night: the Whole Noyse and the Sex Chordae Consort of Viols.

The concert opened with a splendid double-choir sonata by Giovanni Gabrieli, which showcased rich sonorities from each group, the viol and wind sounds contrasting and combining with electrifying effect. The versatile Whole Noyse players hold forth on recorders, cornett (a woodwind blown like a trumpet), variously pitched sackbuts (pre-trombones), curtal (pre-bassoon), and the plucked guitarlike gittern. The viols range from treble through tenor and bass to violone on the bottom.

The varied program was skillfully arranged. In addition to several double-choir pieces that alternated combined sound with back-and-forth imitation, there were four-part pieces for each ensemble. Each group played a collection of dances, with the gittern providing the continuo and contributing solo pieces. The Whole Noyse players were particularly good at toe-tapping rhythmical articulation, and the group of viol dances featured piquant harmonies and nice contrasts of form and sound.

Among my favorite pieces were two prayers. In Jacopo Corfini's "Ave et gaude," the viols accompanied the lovely, mellow cornett playing of Stephen Escher (NB: lovely and mellow are not the first words that come to mind when describing a cornett). Gabrielli's "Exaudi Deus," had a gorgeous low bass sonority, played on the lowest-pitched viols and sackbuts with the curtal. Another striking piece was a viol quartet by Giovanni Legrenzi, characterized by interesting four-part writing, including a wonderful violone part and unexpected events in the inner voices.

Hanneke van Proosdij ably played continuo and a couple of solo pieces on the organ and contributed some virtuoso recorder playing as well. The members of Sex Chordae (forget it: sex refers to the six strings of the viol) are John Dornenburg, Julie Jeffrey, Lynn Tetenbaum, and Farley Pearce. The Whole Noyse is made up of Stephen Escher, Richard Van Hessel, Sanford Stadtfeld, and Herbert Myers (Myers is also the author of the excellent program notes). The day's rain may have been responsible for the repeated bouts of viol tuning, but it did not prevent a large audience from attending and showing its enthusiasm.

(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University [lecturer emerita] and director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)

©2000 Anna Carol Dudley, all rights reserved