Reviews

The Thirteen Perform at VWU
Hofheimer Theater, February 9, 2018
Review by John Campbell

A program titled “From Tree to Shining Tree” was presented by The Thirteen—twelve singers and Artistic Director Matthew Robertson. Five of the singers returned from their last concert here in October, 2016 and seven others rounded out the dozen. The singers, drawn from the world’s finest ensembles—Chanticleer, Seraphic Fire, and Conspirare, to name a few—gathered for several days of intense rehearsal to prepare for a short concert tour from February 8 – 11. Their 2017-18 concert season includes twelve performances in seven states.

The concert was organized in four groups of songs with the goal of emotionally moving from despair toward hope, ending on “a clear, blue morning.” Of the fourteen selections, fully one-half were by living composers. The others were drawn from the previous 500 years of the choral literature. The opening song is a contemporary setting by Williametta Spence (b. 1932) of an ancient text by John Donne (1572-1631) that sets the tone for this musical exploration of nature. The sonnet At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners contrasts Donne's desire to hear the last trumpet's call for death and destruction from Revelations (Holy Bible) with a prayer that he has used his time wisely while on earth. The harmonic blend of the chorus was outstanding.

Robert Ransey (1590s-1644) set his own text, Sleep, fleshly birth, with vocals soaring toward heaven. Remote in phrasing, Ransey's words focus on beautiful things like flowers, sweet youth and soft peace to console us after an opening verse using creeping dissonance to portray loss through death.

The Night is darkening round me by Tonu Korvits (b. 1969) is a setting of Emily Brontë's bleak story of being frozen in place during a furious storm. The auditory space created around the soloist, mezzo-soprano Caroline Olsen, offered appropriately rough vocal blends and a humming ending. The rich, full sound of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Letztes Glück captures the bittersweet faith that winter will pass and spring will return. The poem was written for Brahms by his friend Max Kalbeck.

The next set paired the soaring sense of floating in The Blue Bird set by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) (text Mary Coleridge) with David Lang's (b. 1957) by fire, the most engaging music thus far. The highly dissonant, spiky harmonies of baritone Robby Eisentrout's deep voice versus soprano Elizabeth Bates contrast texts of an interview of a CIA analyst as quoted by Robert Sheer and Attacking with Fire from Sun Tzu's Art of War. It has a horrendous text on using fire as a weapon of war and a CIA observer watching beautiful pelicans become smoking, twisting and hideously contorted as he witnessed an atomic bomb blast.

We were returned to a tender, delicate scene in The Evening Primrose (text John Clare, 1793-1864) set by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) which was connected without pause to Zefiro torna e'l bel tempo rimena (Zephyr returns and brings good weather). Here Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) set a Petrarch sonnet with its rolling rhythm of joy as spring returns once again. To quote Brian Mummert's excellent program notes: “Monteverdi's florid dancing musical material mirrors this celebration only to yield to sequences of suspension which push at the boundaries of tonality to emphasize the narrator's accumulating pain—his beloved has gone to heaven."

Using a tune and lyrics from the Civil War period, Elegy by David Elder (b. 1986) tells us that looking up into the cosmos is only possible at night. Elder's music creates a sharp contrast with the sopranos' (Elizabeth Bates, Agnes Coakley, Allie Faulkner) sweet sung words, a recital of a hymn of nearness to God. There are unpredictable breaks in choral lines with words that disappear into a hum. We got the composer's point. Following this was a sensuous setting of Sappho's poem Piena sorgeva la luna (The full moon rose) set by Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) where a vocal melisma slowly builds to a dramatic climax in a ceremonial scene that seems almost supernatural. All voices were engaged in the rich sound of this early music by Walter Lambe (1450-1504). His setting of Stella caeli (Star of Heaven) is a prayer to Mary for protection from the black plague, then ravaging one-fifth of the population of London.

Conductor Robertson spoke to us about the importance of live music, thanking Sandi Billy for making it happen at Virginia Wesleyan University (this was the third time in the past several years that The Thirteen has performed here). The ensemble then sang Sandi's favorite hymn: This Is My Father's World, arranged by Eriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977). Allie Faulkner sang the text set to a traditional melody that celebrates the life of a minister who often walked, telling his wife that he was going out to see the Father's world. Next we heard Earth Song composed by Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) who wanted to express his own longing for peace. Dolly Parton (b. 1946) had the last word in Light of a Clear Blue Morning. Her words and music, set as a spiritual by Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962), encourages optimism in the face of both joy and trials.

To conclude, we will close with a remembrance of MD Ridge (1938-2017)—who adored The Thirteen above all other choral groups—by quoting her 2016 review: “They had everything one could possibly ask for: pristine diction, superb phrasing, immaculate intonation, flawless blend, crisp direction and extraordinary musicality.”

From Medieval Dances to Philip Glass
duoJalal: Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Yousif Sheronick, percussion
Joan & Macon Brock Theatre, Goode Center, April 24, 2019
Review by John Campbell

It was an intriguing musical exploration when duoJalal presented a program of contemporary music at the just-opened Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center at Virginia Wesleyan University at the 300 seat Joan and Macon Brock Theatre. The performance was like a masterclass introduction to the 21st century classically oriented world, six contemporary composers and Medieval Dances realized by the two performers.

The Brock Theatre offers perfect sight lines and superb acoustics and we were comfortable last night after frigid temperatures at two previous concerts there.

Without introduction Kathryn Lockwood and Yousif Sheronick appeared on stage and played Klezmer a la Bechet, an imaginary meeting between jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet and Naftule Brandwein, a legendary Eastern European Jewish klezmer clarinetist. The duo played viola and Irish frame drum—a most exotic idea.

A married couple living in Westchester County outside New York City, our musicians have played many great halls around the world with many well known performers and ensembles. Violist Kathryn Lockwood came to the U.S. In 1991 from Australia with a degree from Queensland Conservatorium of Music, her masters is from the University of Southern California. Currently she is violist for the Lark Quartet and was formerly with the Pacifica Quartet. She is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She proved versatile in a wide range of demanding repertory.

Yousif Sheronick is known for his “dazzling improvisations” (NY Times) and is a wizard on a range of humble frame drums. As a composer his music has been played around the world. He has earned degrees from Yale University and the University of Iowa and has performed with a host of musical luminaries from Yo-Yo Ma to Paul Winter. He is part of the movement to bring world percussion into contemporary classical music. Personally we enthusiastically embrace this repertory.

There was a detached jazzy energy in John Patitucci (b. 1959) Scenes for Viola and Percussion, commissioned by duoJalal in 2005. Here the viola is given an exotic sound harmonically, matching moods with hand percussion. There is an improvisatory spirit for the viola and the composer has the percussionist playing a wide choice of instruments: djembe, ocean drum (metal beads inside give it a sound reminiscent of a rain stick), cymbal, shakers, bells and various toys. They played with intensity and groove.

Next came music by Philip Glass (b. 1937). In 2001 Sheronick toured extensively with Glass and in 2008 they reunited at the Telluride Music Festival (Colorado). There he asked Glass for a work for duoJalal. Glass sent a solo viola part he had written in 1980 and entrusted Yousif to arrange his own percussion part which duoJalal performed this evening in Glass' Duo for solo Viola and Percussion. Using a frame drum, cymbals, caxixi (small, woven baskets filled with seeds) and toys added fun to the slowly changing repetitive viola lines.

Ms. Lockwood gave a spoken introduction to Medieval Dances (Dance Estampie) (from the 14th Century). The duo picked favorites from early music recordings and translated them into compositions for their instruments. The titles were Chominciamento de Gioia (The beginning of Joy), Salterello, a dance with a leaping step, Belicha (Italian, of unknown origin), Salterello 2 and Trotto (Trotto, to trot in Italian). Ms. Lockwood told us it is not known whether these were dances or early instrumental music. The set ended with the violist making a fine imitation of a bagpipe. The drums were riq, bodran and dumbek. An insistent tempo on upper strings of the viola added variety to the ten-fingered drumming on an hourglass-shaped drum on Mr. Sheronick's knees.

Lost and Found by Kenji Bunch (b. 1973) was written on commission in 2010 for the duo. American composer Bunch is an active performing violist and currently Composer in Residence with the Mobile Symphony. His music is widely performed and broadcast worldwide. The viola part in I. Lost in Time sounds like two stringed instruments played together, accompanied by a dumbek drum. In II. Found Objects the djembe (big red drum) was played with whisk brooms and the viola was played with a guitar pick and also plucked—fascinating!

Mr. Sheronick (b. 1967) composed Jubb Jannin, named for the village in Lebanon where his mother grew up. The fragments of tunes the composer heard as a child were repeated by the viola. The sound seemed sad and remote, like the long suffering of an ancient civilization. The loose vibration in the bendir (Moroccan frame drum) created a background hum.

The closing piece by Enzo Rao (b. 1957) with its easy but uneven gait was in a time signature that alternated between 7/4 and 8/4. Titled A Different World, it is a gypsy tune written by a friend, originally for violin and a cajon (Peruvian box drum). The cajon is sat upon and played by two hands (sometimes 20 separate fingers) and the right foot moved up and down the front of the box to change the tone.

The evening's experience gave us many connections to pursue and a whole different idea of chamber music possibilities.