REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, Cantoriá, St Lawrence’s Church, York, July 8

Cantoria exploring festive music of the Baroque from four different perspectives at St Lawrence’s Church, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

THE most striking feature of music in the Spanish Baroque is the similarity between the sacred and the secular: what works in church is fine outside it, and vice versa. There are few dividing lines. Even more startling, it is all filled with an irrepressible joie de vivre (or as the Spanish might prefer, alegría de vivir). All very un-Anglo-Saxon.

Cantoría’s eight singers and six players, conducted by the tenor Jorge Losana, explored festive music of the Baroque from four different perspectives.

Nowadays the term ‘villancico’ is often used to describe Christmas carols, especially strict ones that use verses (coplas) and refrains (estribillos). But it was originally secular and a cappella. By mid-17th century, many had acquired instrumental accompaniment.

Cantoria performing July 8’s A La Fiesta! programme at York Early Music Festival. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Thus we had Gitanillas cortesanas by José de Torres, gypsy girls dancing to the star of Jacob, in a style very similar to an English verse anthem, but much more balletic.

‘Between Heaven And Earth’ brought us españoletas, more reflective dance-songs of the late 16th century that remained popular throughout the 17th. Oddly enough, the Catalonian monk Joan Cererols contributed several in the vernacular, including a gently swinging eight-voice Suspended Cielos (Suspend, O Heavens) with effective pizzicato backing.

On an earthier level were the jácaras, romances that related the adventures of low-life characters and were therefore much more dramatic, often as intermezzos between acts of an opera. Here we seemed to be at the very heart of Spanish Baroque style. A jacarilla by Sebastián Durón, beautifully inflected by a soprano soloist, even brought the Christ-child into its catchy rhythms.

Cantoria singers and musicians at the In Tune studio

An extended fusion of the rowdier jácara with the Andalusian fandango was delivered by a charismatic baritone over choral backing. It proved the perfect transition into the fandango itself, here distilled instrumentally in one by Santiago de Murcia.

As if in remorse, Cantoría briefly moved back into a sacred lullaby, before a highly theatrical, not to say witty, finale involving bells of different sizes and, by implication, superiority.

It was left to an encore for us to hear castanets. But this was a wonderfully enjoyable, thoroughly professional survey of repertory we need to hear much more in this country. Maybe Cantoria might even consider staging a zarzuela, whose roots lie in the Baroque. Here’s hoping.

Cantoria’s concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on July 20 and still can be accessed via BBC Sounds. Strongly recommended.

Ensemble Bastion

York Early Music Festival, Ensemble Bastion/Ayres Extemporae, National Centre for Early Music, July 10 and  11

TWO prize-winning ensembles from the International Young Artists Competition at last year’s festival returned this year as fully fledged participants. Both more than justified their new status in lunchtime recitals.

Graduates of the Schola Cantorum in Basel, the four members of Ensemble Bastion are led by the recorder player Maruša Brezavšček, with her three equally lively colleagues on viol, theorbo and harpsichord.

In a programme entitled Phantasma: Visions of Heaven and Hell, the group explored the stylus phantasticus, which had its roots in the freewheeling keyboard fantasias of the Venetian performer-composer Claudio Merulo.

Frescobaldi picked up the style and it was transmitted to Germany by his pupil Johann Froberger, whose harpsichord Tombeau on the death of a French lutenist was fluently played by Mélanie Flores.

Biber used it, too, in the passacaglia at the end of his Mystery (or Rosary) Sonatas, which was imaginatively arranged here, growing in intensity.

These German pieces were the programme’s centrepiece. On either side we heard works by slightly earlier Italians. Two sonatas by Dario Castello, another Venetian, proved that he had Merulo’s style very much in his blood, with plentiful imitations and volatile changes of tempo.

More surprising was an adaptation of a Palestrina madrigal lamenting the wounds of love and thus veering between heaven and hell.

Similarly there was virtuoso viola da gamba from Martin Jantzen in a sonata by Bovicelli and equally deft finger-work from Elias Conrad’s theorbo in a vivid sonata by Maurizio Cazzati.

Ayres Extemporae

Finally, Brezavšček’s ubiquitous dexterity was nowhere better than in Monteverdi’s cheery Moresca from L’Orfeo, in which she switched seamlessly between alto and piccolo recorders. I hope this ensemble will return soon.

Ayres Extemporae is a string trio with a rare five-string piccolo cello where you would expect a viola to be. The ensemble took as its title ‘Erbarme dich!’ (Have mercy!), the opening words of several arias by Bach, but in this case of an aria from Cantata 55 for tenor, with piccolo tenor taking the voice part, as also in another one from Cantata 97.

In the hands of Victor García García, the instrument’s plaintive tone was well calculated to emulate the voice’s prayerful pleas and eventual serenity.

The programme opened with a suite by Matthew Locke, where the dances had an improvised feel and were much illuminated by the delicate filigrees of Xenia Gogu Mensenin’s violin. Two violin sonatas by Biber contained sets of variations that the group differentiated carefully.

Teresa Madeira’s cello came into its own in movements from Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba. In the Andante from No 2, pizzicato interludes offered moments of meditation. In the Adagio of No 3, the piccolo cello played gamba and provided quietude amid the restive atmosphere of the arias mentioned earlier.

Finally, we enjoyed the complete No 1, where the trio developed powerful momentum while maintaining admirable clarity. This is a thoughtful group whose future looks assured.

BOTH these concerts were supported by the John Feldberg Foundation, set up in memory of the violinist and harpsichord builder, who died aged 30 in 1960, to showcase the achievements of young musicians.

Reiews by Martin Dreyer

Micklegate Singers to give first complete performance of A Quaker Trilogy by University of York composers on Saturday

The poster for Micklegate Singers’ Beyond The World concert

MICKLEGATE Singers will give the first complete performance of A Quaker Trilogy, William Penn’s words of comfort, set by three burgeoning York composers at Saturday’s concert at St Lawrence’s Church, Lawrence Street, York.

Those works will be Frederick Viner’s The Truest End, David McGregor’s They That Love and Joe Bates’s Absence.

“Over the last season or so, the Micklegate Singers have been drip-feeding a set of three commissions into our concert programmes by wonderful new composers from the University of York,” says chair Sarah Sketchley.

“These are based on Quaker words of comfort by William Penn, chosen by the commissioner, and are about to be performed as a full set for the first time since being published by University of York Music Press (UYMP).”

Directed by Nicholas Carter, Saturday’s Beyond The World programme also will feature music of mourning by Manuel Cardoso (Et Egressus Est A Filia Sion) and James MacMillan (Who Shall Separate Us?), through music of the light from Ivo Antognini (Lux Aeterna) and James Whitbourn (He Carried Me Away In The Spirit), to the brightness of Herbert Howells’ Haec Dies and William Byrd’s work of the same name.

Matthew Martin’s Mass of St Dominic and Ben Parry: Lighten Our Darkness will be performed too. Tickets for the 7.30pm concert will be available at the door with free admission for anyone in full-time education and accompanied children.

When “pingdemic” rules out Rachel Podger, up steps Bojan Cicic at three hours’ notice… to perform exactly the same repertoire!

Rachel Podger: Had to self-isolate after being pinged

QUICK thinking by York Early Music Festival director Delma Tomlin saved the day when violinist Rachel Podger fell victim to the dreaded “pingdemic”.

Rachel had to self-isolate at the last minute, foregoing her 9.15pm live performance of The Violinist Speaks at St Lawrence’s Church, Hull Road, on July 13.

In a flash, Delma asked Croatian-born Baroque violinist Bojan Cicic to step into the breach, as he had arrived in York already to perform with Florilegium at the National Centre for Early Music the following night.

Bojan Cicic: Took over solo concert programme at three hours’ notice

Not only did he say ‘Yes’ at only three hours’ notice, but also he played the very same repertoire that Rachel had selected: JS Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major; Giuseppe Tartini’s Sonata in B minor; Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Passacaglia in G minor, for solo violin, and Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, for solo violin.

Nothing was announced on social media beforehand by the festival organisers; only the audience was alerted of the late change by email, whereupon Bojan duly “wowed” his socially distanced crowd.

Rachel subsequently recorded The Violinist Speaks without an audience at the NCEM for a digital livestream premiere at 7.30pm last Saturday. Her online concert is now available on demand until August 13; on sale until August 9 at:  ncem.co.uk/events/rachel-podger-online/ncem.co.uk

Quick thinking: York Early Music Festival director Delma Tomlin

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Stile Antico/Bojan Čičić, York Early Music Festival

Stile Antico: “Go-to” group in the early music world. Picture Marco Borggreve

York Early Music Festival: Stile Antico, York Minster, July 13; Bojan Čičić, St Lawrence’s Church, York, July 13

OVER the past few years, and especially during lockdown, Stile Antico have been something of a “go-to” group in the early music world. No-one is complaining, least of all this critic. As their name implies, style is the watchword of these dozen voices.

Next month we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin des Prez, who is right up there in anyone’s shortlist of great Renaissance composers. He developed a new style that melded northern European technical precision with simpler Italian drama and clarity: it was widely influential for 200 years.

The programme was built around his Missa Sine Nomine (‘no-name’ mass, if you will), which is almost a textbook of imitation between voices, giving listeners multiple pegs to hang their hearing on.

Between the sections of the mass, we heard reminders of Josquin’s associations with his putative teacher Johannes Ockeghem, another of the greats, and two pieces by slightly younger colleagues.

After Josquin’s Kyrie, in which perfectly formed chords emerged from swirling mists of counterpoint, it was good to be reminded of Ockeghem’s sparer harmonies in his four-voice motet Alma Redemptoris Mater.

Following the Gloria, a work called Nymphes des Bois might have sounded almost lascivious in such a religious context. In fact it was Josquin’s setting of a lament by Jean Molinet on the death of Ockeghem in 1497, imploring all nature to weep for an engaging man variously described as gracious, kind and virtuous. It was indeed a gem, and faded symbolically.

Excitement at the start of the Credo became serenely dissonant at Christ’s Passion, before building again to a triumphant Amen. This was singing of the highest calibre, making perfect use of the building’s welcoming acoustic.

After Josquin’s own Salve Regina and an unusually restrained Benedictus, another lament followed, this time from Hieronymus Vinders on Josquin’s death, the dark colours of its seven voices underlined by the absence of sopranos. Finally, Jacquet de Mantua’s medley of Josquin’s greatest hits, doubtless instantly recognisable by contemporary ears, provided an upbeat conclusion.

These two straddled the soothing balm of Josquin’s Agnus Dei, completing the mass. All were a fitting tribute to a much-respected composer – and a timely reminder of his supremacy.

Bojan Bojan Čičić: Late-evening late replacement for Rachel Podger

Late evening at St Lawrence’s Church brought the unaccompanied violin of Bojan Čičić in Bach and Biber. He had gamely taken up the cudgels at the eleventh hour to replace Rachel Podger, who had been “pinged’ into self-isolation”. They have been successful duet partners on disc so are equally talented.

He began somewhat cautiously with the first of Bach’s solo sonatas from 1720, BWV 1001 in G minor. Bach was known as a keyboard layer, but also played the violin all his life so was no slouch where strings were concerned. These fearsomely difficult works from his period at Cöthen laid the groundwork for the virtuoso techniques displayed by such as Paganini in the 19th century.

But they held no terrors for Čičić, even if he warmed up slowly. The slow intro led into more rapid counterpoint, both sections in the minor, until the warm, major-key Largo that was virtually a duet. All were preparation for the moto perpetuo of the final Gigue, which was thrown off with incredible panache.

He continued to dazzle in The Guardian Angel, one of Biber’s famous Mystery Sonatas. Sixty-five repetitions of a four-note descending phrase may not sound promising, but Biber’s Passacaglia overlays them with an extraordinary exploration of technical wizardry. Čičić revelled in it. So did we.

The dance origins of Bach’s Second Partita, in D minor, were keenly emphasised. After an accented Allemanda and the running passagework of the Corrente, we enjoyed a stately Sarabanda with much internal ornamentation.

The extremely sprightly Gigue was prelude to a highly dramatic Chaconne in which Čičić positively rolled his bow all over the strings, at breakneck speed. Its ‘chorale’ in the major came as light relief before the final return to the more serious minor key. Riveting stuff. You did not dare take your eyes off him.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Available online on demand until August 13 at ncem.co.uk/yemf