Reviewed today are NCC/Hillierat St Ann's Church, David Berkman's Ameiresco Sextetat the Mermaid Arts Centre, Kilkenny College Chamber Choir, Guinness Choirat the Church of the Holy Child Whitehall and Tindersticksin Vicar Street
NCC/Hillier
St Ann's Church, Dublin
Carissimi Jephte; David Lang The Little Match Girl Passion.
Conductor Paul Hillier chose two striking works for this concert by the National Chamber Choir. The oratorio Jephteby Giacomo Carissimi (1605-74) is a model of its kind, providing many of the elements and gestures that later composers would build on. David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passionis recent enough to have won a Pulitzer Prize this year, and was being heard for the first time in a version for choir, specially prepared for the National Chamber Choir - the original is for solo voices.
Both works have narratives of profound import, the sacrifice of a daughter in one, the harrowing last night of an impoverished child in the other. The Carissimi is direct in its pursuit of the listener's emotions, the Lang altogether more oblique.
Carissimi gives roles to characters, and the keening close of the work is one of the great passages of 17th-century music. Lang frequently works with cascades and chains of material, fragmenting the text and layering it over itself, cautious to avoid the path of sentimentality.
He's interested in the idea of a passion setting for the 21st century, but his approach creates distancing effects, as if he can't quite bear to confront the detail of the little girl's suffering, safe in the knowledge that most listeners already know enough of the story to work that out for themselves.
Both settings placed unusual demands on the choir. Hillier opted for voices from the choir to provide all of the solo parts in the Carissimi, and in the Lang the singers don't just sing, a number of them have to play percussion, too.
As a first venture into 17th-century oratorio, Jephtecame off well for the choir, although the music's full choral splendour did not materialise with a choir this small, and it was clear that a few more performances would probably transform the consistency and confidence of some of the solos. The able continuo accompaniment was provided by Harjo Neutkens (theorbo) and Brian MacKay (chamber organ).
The choir sounded altogether more secure in the performance of the Lang, following the gamut of its carefully delineated expressive range with studious care and making the most of its moments of small drama. MICHAEL DERVAN
David Berkman's Ameiresco Sextet
Mermaid Arts Centre
Pianist and composer David Berkman's comparative lack of recognition this side of the Atlantic may have something to do with his genial, self-deprecating, unpushy manner. It has nothing to do with the scale of his considerable talent.
His music combines form with freedom - the security, if that's the right word, of structure, but with some flexibility over departing from it rhythmically and in terms of line and harmony. But the structure is important.
After a rehearsal and just one engagement, this strong second concert by the sextet he is touring here - Michael Buckley (tenor/soprano), Paul Towndrow (alto), Phil Bancroft (tenor/soprano), Aidan O'Donnell (bass), Seán Carpio (drums) and the leader - showed a group still feeling its way, somewhat, though gradually coming to terms with the music.
The lengthy solos of much of the first set, which opened with Blutocracy (Blues For Pluto), a tricky exercise in tonalities, tended towards the theme-solos-theme routine of a blowing session. Even with some high-calibre improvising by Buckley, Towndrow and Bancroft and the rapport between Berkman and Carpio, who formed an impressive rhythm section with O'Donnell, it was not a completely inviting prospect for a music offering other opportunities.
But the set closer, Tom Harrell, composed in honour of the great trumpeter, was a pointer to more interesting things. With fine solos by only Bancroft (on tenor), from the front line, and from O'Donnell and Berkman, framed by some lovely writing for tenor, alto and soprano and including a beautifully controlled coda with interweaving saxophones, its spontaneity was more focused and the results less diffuse.
Helped by succinct soloing, the balance between form and structure was sustained much more closely throughout an enjoyable second set. The level of soloing, especially by Buckley and Berkman, remained consistently high and the promising Towndrow produced one of his best on the now old-fashioned AABA form of Interesting, Perhaps, But Hardly Fascinating Rhythm.
Just as significantly, the saxophone counterpoint, both written and improvised, of the punningly-titled Fuguet About It, and the weaving of the front line on Weird Knock, with its changes of tempo and mood, and on the melodic Small Wooden Housekeeper, showed not only how stimulating Berkman's writing is, but also what this young band could do with it collectively and individually. By the end of this tour they will be even better.
The Ameiresco Sextet will be in Cork tonight, Limerick tomorrow, Blanchardstown on Thursday and Tipperary on Friday RAY COMISKEY
Kilkenny College Chamber Choir, Guinness Choir
Church of the Holy Child, Whitehall, Dublin
Bach Cantata 140; Suite No 3; Magnificat.
The Guinness Choir succeeded again in persuading a large audience to turn up at the big Church of the Holy Child on the road to Dublin Airport. The choir presented a popular all-Bach programme with returning partners the Ulster Orchestra under conductor David Milne.
It included the best quartet of soloists that the Guinness have so far assembled at this venue, though placing them behind the orchestra did have a cost in terms of immediacy. Colette Boushell, who has appeared regularly with the choir since standing in for no less than Emma Kirkby, sings with a fresh, bright presence. In this she was a perfect fit for Cantata 140, Wachet auf, as the young bride to bass Philip O'Reilly's companionable groom in an ever-surprisingly sensuous extended metaphor for Christ's love for the human soul. O'Reilly was particularly warm and sincere in a recitative in which the allegorical groom takes his bride.
His success here was important since alongside him was tenor John Elwes, a master of Bach recitative, who was also a sensitive partner in the Magnificat's duet on Et misericordia.
For this he was joined by versatile Tanya Sewell who sang a soprano aria as well as those for alto. Though not as young as Boushell, Sewell sings with a similar sweetness and freshness, demonstrating how passing 30 does not automatically mean acquiring a matronly sonority.
Milne has always had the measure of the big acoustic in Whitehall, here again managing all the balances between the refined Ulster Orchestra, the soloists and choir. He favours crisp tempos, occasionally too crisp for me - once or twice for the choir - yet always valid and workable. A sensitive continuo section was led by stylish harpischordist Malcolm Proud, and there were very fine obbligato solos from violin, oboe and oboe d'amore.
The choir itself was in good voice, especially the sopranos with their long cantus firmusmelody in the cantata. One of the peaks of the choir's expressive responsiveness to Milne was in the cantata's final chorale, which may have been partly due to singing from memory. They could do with more strength in fast, imitative passages, and more relish in German consonants, but otherwise they were spirited and in tune. The girls from the Kilkenny College Chamber Choir added a sheen, notably to the soprano line, and sang the Magnificat's trio with welcome naturalness. MICHAEL DUNGAN
Tindersticks
Vicar Street, Dublin
Tindersticks don't have casual fans. In fact, it's quite possible that the type of person who attends one of their gigs has secretly agreed to an unwritten code of solemn respect and passionate attention that the Nottingham band's music demands. It helps that if you like one Tindersticks record, you'll probably like them all; that's not to suggest any homogeneity in their work, more their consistently high output of majestic, tear-soaked chamber pop.
This was a triumphant return to Dublin, and even if the band has seen its original line-up of six members halved since 2006, their core sound has remained the same. Added to that, the pristine acoustics of Vicar Street facilitated the pleasure of the listening experience. Expanded to 10 musicians for this show, including a five-piece string section, Tindersticks supplied a perfect mix of old and new material.
In a set of many highlights, Mother Dear, with Neil Fraser's piercing guitar chords biting at Stuart Staples's vocals before giving away to the string section's lush finale was impeccable, while the climactic intensity of Say Goodbye to the Cityprovided a spellbinding mid-set peak. Even more mesmerising was crowd favourite She's Gone, which could be interpreted as a father's observation of a growing daughter or the remnants of a romance gone wrong, as Fraser's rapid acoustic strumming gently grappled with David Boulter's delicate piano motif.
Most notable was Staples's willingness to engage with the audience. A couple of solo recording ventures and relocation to the more sedate climes of rural France appears to have brightened his hangdog demeanour.
His diction was crystal clear and throughout the evening the singer's unique quivering baritone perfectly communicated the yearning, heartache and cynicism of love in all its different forms. Prowling the centre stage area with a refined nervous energy, he would occasionally break into a smile or share a joke with his bandmates, a sign that, even if Tindersticks remain the prime documenters of love's tormented journey, they can, at last, see a light at the end of the tunnel. BRIAN KEANE
