The Greenwich Early Music Festival offers the Early Music enthusiast not only the largest exhibition of its kind in the world, but a weekend packed full of workshops, masterclasses and concerts.
This year's festival was no exception, with a varied concert programme featuring some of the Early Music scene's brightest stars.
On the Saturday night, Stile Antico took to the stage in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel. This group of young British singers have achieved much already at this early stage in their career, including working with Sting on his project Songs from the Labyrinth, receiving a Grammy nomination for their first album Music for Compline and recording their second album Heavenly Harmonies (both Harmonia Mundi).
At the Festival, the group performed a programme based on the Song of Songs, a passage from the Bible which contains some of the most sensual language in the Old Testament. The selections of motets were interspersed with plainchant, also using the Latin text from the Song of Songs. I heard several comments from fellow audience members confirming my own wish for both the Latin text of each motet and a translation to be provided in the programme. That said, the performance was a pleasant surprise in many ways, and the hype that currently surrounds Stile Antico is not an exaggeration of their talents.
The evening began with an effective and atmospheric motet from Clemens non Papa. Their mellifluous vocal blend was aided by the favourable acoustics of the opulently-decorated chapel. One of the group's key strengths is their ability to communicate. As a conductorless ensemble, they are forced to maintain frequent eye contact. In turn there is no barrier between them and the audience, facilitating their constant and interaction. Stile Antico's rich timbre is further enhanced by the variety they add at every stage. Sensitive and intelligently-gauged dynamic changes are matched with well-synchronised breaths. A few especially effective passages of sotto voce did however leave me wishing for more, because of the wonderful contrast it created with more powerful passages.
The group, keenly aware of the potential for the similarity of this programme's material to become a little repetitive, worked wisely throughout to add variety with changes in the vocal arrangement for each motet, some for lower voices only, for example, and the inclusion of Guerrero's double choir motet, Ego Flos Campi.
Geographical exploitation of the chapel's acoustics also provided added interest, as the plainchant ‘Nigra Sum' was performed by the sopranos from the back. The second half began innovatively with the entire group singing Ceballos's Hortus Conclusus from the same position. This was particularly effective, as hearing sacred music like this in a chapel environment emulated the feel of a religious service, helping the audience to visualise more clearly the spiritual purpose and intention of these motets. It forced the audience to concentrate not on the performers but solely on the music and the text – often a refreshing experience in a concert. The nominated animateur of the group created a marvellously jovial and informal atmosphere, with a friendly introduction and informative insights into the various works and composers featured throughout.
A concert of that length for a group of unaccompanied singers is a formidable undertaking and, although the group on the whole provided a constantly fluid and luxurious sound, with precise diction and almost unstintingly-crisp unison passages, they did understandably show slight signs of exhaustion on occasion. This was only really the case just before the interval and again mid-way through the second half. In Vadam et Circubo by Victoria, for example, the previously flawless ensemble singing suffered from the protrusion of a voice or two through the otherwise well-blended sound.
That said, the group's stage presence, vocal quality and tightness of ensemble is impressive, especially considering the singers' tender years.
The next event I attended (on the Sunday morning) was Horses Brawl, an original duo who perform a unique synthesis of folk and Early Music, this time at Blackheath Halls, another venue regularly used during the festival. The music produced by this innovative ensemble created a rare concert atmosphere indeed.
Several minor disasters befell the group: Laura Cannell's violin fell off a collapsing table just half an hour before the doors opened and group guitarist Adrian Lever suffered a broken string mid-performance. Inaccurate programme information was also a slight disappointment. Despite all this, however, the vitality and passionate musical invention shone through.
The duo seem to harbour a slight lack of confidence, but they overcame it as the performance proceeded. On the other hand, the issue was further highlighted when they were joined on recorder and viol for the second half by the very experienced Philip Thorby, even if his arrival on stage signified a more confident approach to the music from all as the duo visibly relaxed further into the music.
Particular highlights included Alca, one of the tracks from their recent CD Dindirin, featuring recorder, guitar and some very welcome crumhorn playing. What makes Horses Brawl's style so enticing is their ability to take passages, or even mere snatches of Early Music and, whilst maintaining their sonic identity, infusing them with a folk-inspired fervour of hypnotic energy. Most exemplary of this was Merula, a piece based on part of a canzonetta by Merula (hence the title) and the string parts from passages of Telemann's Suite in A minor for recorder and string orchestra. They move sinuously from one tune to another, and whilst still recognisable, the original music is ingeniously manipulated and developed.
A genuine crossover ensemble, Horses Brawl would be just at home in a public house as in a concert hall. They offer vivacious, passionate and energetic playing of innovative arrangements, seamlessly linked and developed from snippets of the Early Music oeuvre. This is an original group with great potential and with more confidence and a more assured stage presence they could go far.
The Moeck/SRP Solo Recorder Playing Competition is seen by many as the highpoint of the Festival. This year, as part of his prize for winning the competition last year, Chris Orton gave a recital at the culmination of the weekend's events. The competition has launched the careers of several big names, including previous winner Piers Adams (who happened to be sitting in the audience this year). Orton too, has the added accolade of being the first Briton to win since the competition became open to international entrants after 1995.
Orton's programme, entitled rather ambiguously "… Fragments … Twilight … Horizon …" brought together an eclectic mix of eighteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century music. The variety in his recital was maintained by an almost piece by piece exchange of accompanist. What was unfortunately sadly lacking was any attempt to communicate verbally with the audience for the entire length of the recital; just a few words would have created greater affinity between performer and audience.
Whilst no one could begrudge Orton for including a healthy dose of contemporary compositions (although a little incongruent with the Festival's raison d'etre, the inclusion of this repertoire is an important aspect of the competition), it was abundantly clear from his performance that he is far more comfortable in this genre than that of Early Music. His performance of the Dancian-Philidor Sonata, which opened the recital, and the arrangement of a J.S. Bach Partita (which worked remarkably well) both felt lacking in the confidence and energy that effused from Orton in the rest of his performance.
The contemporary pieces, which included no less than two world premieres, by Simaku and Sztojanov, were stylishly and virtuosically performed. This is clearly Orton's area of interest, especially as several of the works were commissioned by him, and it shone through in his masterful performance of them. Markus Zanhausen's Horns of Elfland – written in homage to Benjamin Britten – did however fall a little flat, with an understated atmosphere pervading the entire piece, perhaps more of a programming reservation than a performance quibble.
Orton's final piece – Liebermann's Sonata for flute and piano, op. 23 – was a wise choice. A captivatingly mystical feel in the first movement transformed into the tempestuous fury of the second. Orton attacked the fast-paced virtuosic passages with explosive vigour. He promises to be a formidable force on the contemporary recorder music scene, as at least in this genre he is sprinting to the top.
My visit was completed by dropping in to the exhibition – as ever, a busy mix of music publishers and instrument makers. The Early Music Shop (co-organisers of the weekend) celebrated their fortieth anniversary at the exhibition this year, and their stand was a staple element. Overall, then, in spite of a few reservations about minor aspects of the concerts viewed, there was ample demonstration here that the Greenwich Early Music Festival retains its vitality and relevance.
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