RSS 2.0 FeedFebruary 9, 2011, Cover Stories, Classical
The Divine Orlando
The Divine Orlando. King of Musicians. Prince of Music. Chanticleer, courtesy of The Friends of Chamber Music, presented an all-Orlando di Lasso program that bathed the audience in glorious sixteenth-century polyphony.
Chanticleer, the twelve-member, all-male vocal ensemble, tackled the music of sixteenth-century master Orlando di Lasso for The Friends of Chamber Music's second Early Music Series concert. Saturday night’s audience of 800 at the visually impressive, yet acoustically circumspect Community of Christ Temple was polite throughout the aurally taxing performance.
Sixteenth-century polyphony generates lush sounds through its layering of numerous musical lines. While it contributes to absolutely lovely sonorities, layering is also this music’s main detractor. It can be exhausting to have heaps of six-voice polyphony swirl around in the ether for twenty-minute-long pieces regardless of how beautiful they might be.
Chanticleer opened with Nicolas Gombert’s six-voice chanson Tous les regretz, which they wisely elided with di Lasso’s Missa “Tous les regretz.” di Lasso’s work is a fine example of a “parody mass.” “Parody” in this case is not meant in the mocking sense; rather, parody masses were compositional exercises in which a composer would use a preexisting piece as the germ to begin and expand upon for a new piece. The elision worked because the beginning of the Mass was so similar to some of the melodic and voicing formulas of the Gombert chanson. The Credo, typically a composer’s bane because of its length, was the highlight of the set because of the variety presented. The men sounded fantastic in their ensemble unisons and the incipits did not seem out-of-place as they all too often do.
After intermission di Lasso’s Psalm settings were presented. The opening Psalmus poenitentialis “Miserere mei Deus,” with text from Psalm 51 for five voices, was a massive piece that became too repetitive in its structure. Two lines of text were sung, followed by a brief pause, then repeated. There were some moving instances within the twenty-one couplets, especially when the men divided further to one-voice-on-a-part. These moments were sensitive and as a smaller chamber setting, I felt the text was more readily conveyed.
The motet, Laudate dominum de caelis set the texts of Psalms 148 and 150 for four voices. A livelier setting than the somber Psalmus poentientialis, it was downright jocular in the later portions where the words spoke of praising the Lord with all manner of instruments.
There were some cracks in the performance however. The sopranos were consistently flat in their upper registers and their timbres did not blend as homogenously with each other or the other sections. I found myself closing my eyes to avoid watching the unsynchronized bopping in the triple meter sections as it was distracting. My heart broke for one of the basses who was clearly ill and had many coughing fits throughout the performance. That ranks up there as a performer's worst nightmare. Overall though, the tenor and bass sections were superb throughout in blend, intonation, and providing harmonic stability.
An air of uncertainty permeated the performance. In looking through the ensemble’s past performances, this program, “The Divine Orlando,” does not appear frequently nor does it appear after this performance. I wondered if this program was tailor-made to fit into The Friends’ Early Music Series. My suspicions were increased during the encore of Gabrieli’s Ave regina caelorum. Granted, the degree of difficulty of the Gabrieli is less than that of the di Lasso works, but the ensemble simply seemed more at ease. Chanticleer has a stable of early music repertory that would have provided for a more diverse and musically engaging evening. di Lasso, though a master, unfortunately grew tiresome for audience and performer alike.
REVIEW:
The Friends of Chamber Music
Chanticleer: The Divine Orlando
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Community of Christ Temple
1001 W. Walnut, Independence, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or visit http://chambermusic.org
Photos courtesy of Chanticleer
Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor
Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.
In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).
His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com
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