Camerata Academica of the Antipodes | Baroque Romantics
7 December 2024, St Albans Church Hall, Epping, NSW
Director: Dr Imogen Coward
Turning up at a church hall in Epping to hear an interesting program by a well established group of which I had not heard before, made me curious. The rather grand title “Camerata Academica of the Antipodes” probably eludes to the large number of PhDs in this group in all manner of subjects. The core of the group are Imogen, Taliesin and Leon Coward, together with Christopher Porteous (violin) and Sophia Clark (cello). The Coward siblings all hold PhDs in musicology; clearly something was afoot in that family.
Where possible, they play from facsimile editions but on modern steel stringed instruments. Still, not all of the repertoire was Baroque.
Reading the program notes it was clear that humour plays an important role in the group as you might expect among sibling intellectuals in the same subject area. Viola jokes abounded, for example, “She thought about adding the viola, but then chose to further her music education.”
The concert opened with an item not on the program, from young string players. It was not explained, but I imagine they were part of a teaching studio run by the protagonists. It is always great to see children encouraged; we are under no illusion as to what a long and difficult path it is to become competent string players.
Clearly the audience was made up a well established local following as well as friends and family.
All this is however not to say that the Camerata’s approach to the music was amateurish. There are clearly many skilled musicians in the group. For example, Taliésin’s performance of the fiendishly difficult mazurka, arranged for solo violin and the Camerata ensemble (from the original work for violin and piano), Wieniawski’s “Obertass”, was impressively virtuosic.
Amongst shorter works and single movements were pieces by Purcell, Grieg, Telemann, Leon Coward (on piano), Handel and Vivaldi. The centre pieces of the program were Corelli’s concerto grosso Op. 6/8 “Fatto per la Notte di Natale” and Vivaldi’s double violin concerto “L’Estro Armononico” No. 8. These performances were lively and the solo instruments were always well matched in tone colour and phrase shaping. Although there was no keyboard continuo, the cello section, led by the obviously talented Sophia Clark, ably provided a solid harmonic bedrock and set a strong rhythmic momentum.
The vocal ensemble joined the strings to perform some traditional French carols, the Noël Nouvelet and Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris (“Between the Ox and the Grey Donkey”). The ensemble singing was balanced and with excellent intonation. The soprano soloist, Tania Polhill, sang with a pure, clear sound. Taliésin, as well as being a talented violinist, clearly has more than one string to his musical bow. He sang a solo with a rich, warm and obviously well trained baritone voice. The whole ensemble also led the audience for the final item of the concert, the Christmas carols Oh Come All Ye Faithful and an encore Silent Night.
This rather eclectic concert was both personal and engaging. Congratulations to the band of dedicated musicians.
It was well worth the trip to Epping. And bless Gladys Berejiklian for the new Metro!
