The Song Company| Fire Songs and Madrigals
21 September 2024, Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, NSW
ARTISTS
Susannah Lawergren – Soprano
Amy Moore – Soprano
Christie Anderson – Mezzo Soprano
Timothy Reynolds – Tenor
Hayden Barrington – Baritone
James Fox – Bass
PROGRAM
Carl Crossin Part Needle, Part Thread
Morten Lauridsen 6 Madrigali “Fire Songs”
Claudio Monteverdi Ecco mormorar l’onde
Vattene pur crudel
Anna Meredith Heal You
Sally Whitwell Lightness of being
Gavin Bryars Laude Cortonese (selections)
Anne Cawrse Afterword
An intimate concert in the distractingly beautiful Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House is always a treat, but more so when the group performing is the highly skilled Sydney a cappella group, The Song Company. The six solo voices were led on this occasion by a guest director and mezzo from Adelaide, Christie Anderson.
Amongst other contemporary composers, the concert also featured two Adelaide composers, Carl Crossin and Anne Cawrse. Monteverdi was the only early composer represented, but the spirit of his madrigals amongst all the modern music was clearly an inspiration for much of this program.
The “fire” theme of the concert pertains not so much to matters incendiary as to the passions associated with love. Disdain, anguish, sadness, ecstasy, cruelty, jealousy; mainly love unrequited, being often the theme of love songs of the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
The positive aspects of love bookended the program. Carl Crossin’s “Part Needle, Part Thread” takes a sensitive look and gives an integrated view of love, suggesting being generous with time. Anne Cawrse’s “Afterword” is based on a poem by the wonderfully spiritual David Malouf and again suggests taking time, and an attitude of generous humanity in love.
Most of the works in between focus on the more difficult aspects of love, with the exception of the first of the Gavin Bryars’ pieces. Here, in “Da ciel venne messo novello” he presents a favourite subject of early Christian art, the annunciation, where the Angel Gabrielle sets the pretext for the New Testament, announcing the redemption of mankind with God’s seminal gift to the Virgin Mary. Bryars’ three pieces are a clever modern day medieval trope or florid organum with the cantus firmus of the original Gregorian Chant from the 13th Century Cortona song book. The soprano line here was ecstatically sung; a thrilling performance. The third arrangement, for soprano, tenor and bass reflected love of a different kind, shown by poignant dissonances; the suffering of Mary at the foot of the cross.
The Monteverdi madrigal “Vattene pur, crudel” (from the third book of 5 part madrigals) with its strident dissonances and falling semitones to show fainting, takes us to the unconsolable sadness of a love unrequited.
The Song Company presented a wonderful program here. Love has always been a motivator of great music and was performed with excellent ensemble singing and a generosity of spirit, expressing all the passion and pain that this repertoire demanded. An excellent concert.
