by Laura McDowell
February 8, 2010 Belmont Abbey, NC: Rarely does one have the opportunity
to hear a program devoted solely to seventeenth century music, much
less one that includes little-known women composers. The versatile
artists of Carolina Pro
Musica, soprano Rebecca Miller Saunders, Karen
Hite Jacob (harpsichord, organs), Edward Ferrell (alto recorder, flauto
traverso, guitar), and Holly Wright Maurer (treble and bass viola da
gamba and recorder) brought them to life in a delightful performance
using period instruments. The vast and sonorous basilica of Belmont
Abbey, where the ensemble has been honored with Abbey Artists status
since 2001-02, was an acoustically sympathetic venue for their eclectic
program of secular and liturgical works.
Formed in 1977, the ensemble has performed in Europe and the United
Kingdom and throughout the southeast, especially around Charlotte,
where they’ve maintained a concert series now in its 32nd season.
Jacob, the ensemble’s director and a co-founder of the Southeast
Historical Keyboard Society, performs on a single-manual harpsichord,
a modified replica of a 17th century Mersenne, by Willard Martin, and
a small chamber “continuo” organ by John Bennett and Glenn
Giuttari. The recorders and one keyed-flute are 18th century replicas
made of English boxwood. The two beautiful gambas and guitar added
their own historic timbres.
The program began with a Suite in D for flauto traverso and gamba/harpsichord
continuo by Dietrich Becker (1623-79), a German violinist, organist
and composer. The traditional four movements — Allmandt, Courant,
Sarabande, and Gigue — were in small-scale binary form where
Ferrell executed beautifully delicate embellishments on the repeats.
The soft
dynamics in the flute’s lower range required some careful listening.
Other instrumental works were by more well-known composers. From Frescobaldi’s
Fiori Musicali, a collection of liturgical organ music from
1635, we heard Jacob on the basilica’s organ perform the "Toccata
avanti la Messa della Dominica" (Orbis factor), followed
by the nine-fold Kyrie, with Ferrell intoning the chant in between
the
improvisatory-like chant-based
organ interludes. Jacob performed in an array of articulations and
tempi the “Balletto del Granduca” by the great keyboard
composer Sweelinck, a variation set that began innocently enough with
a simple, march-like theme and morphed quickly into sweeping technical
displays.
There were two chaconnes — the first from The Prophetess (1690)
by Henry Purcell that featured Mauer and Ferrell on two alto recorders
with Jacob providing the work’s recurring harmonic and bassline
foundation. The second was one of the program’s highlights, the
"Chaconne en Trio" by Jacques Morel (c.1690-1740). The bass gamba joined
the flute in presentation of the melodic material, in a work of elegant “French” dotted
rhythms in triple meter. The instrumental parts were challenging and
well executed — the flute’s music climbed all over its
range, especially the high register, and the gamba was kept busy executing
difficult passages of sixteenth notes. In several places, the harpsichord
was tacet, showcasing the two featured instrumentalists à deux.
Saunders was featured in works by two nuns — “O magnum
mysterium” by
Lucretia Vizzana (1590-1662), a woman who joined a Camaldolese convent
in Bologna at the age of 8, and “Cari musici” by Bianca
Maria Meda (c.1665-c.1700), a Benedictine nun at the convent of San
Martino del Leano in Pavia. The latter work begins ironically with
an injunction delivered in recitative to “dear musicians, [to]
with pleasing silence withhold your voices” (all the while delivering
the music, of course) so as to “lovingly contemplate the love
of Jesus.” The two short arias that ensued are rapturous reflections
on the divine love of Christ. Saunders’s voice is ideal for this
repertoire — crystal clear with a judicious use of vibrato as
an ornament and appropriate Italianate glottal cadential embellishments.
Two works by a semi-cloistered composer, Antonia Bembo, “Ha,
que l’absense est un cruel martire” and the sensuous “Total
pulcra es” from the Song of Solomon, had arrestingly dramatic
texts but suffered, unfortunately, for want of a wider emotional expressive
range. “Folías,” a charming piece for singer and
guitar by the obscure Luis de Brinceño, afforded a treasure
trove of descriptive vignettes, yet this, too, suffered from a sameness
of affekt throughout.
The program ended with “Pur ti miro,” the rapturous final
duet from Monteverdi’s last opera L’Incoronazione di
Poppea (1651),
with viol and singer trading the melodic material and chamber organ/guitar
as the continuo anchor. This timeless love duet unfolds
in a sequence of breathless, short phrases of panting adoration heightened
by exquisite dissonance, a beautiful conclusion to a most interesting
concert.
