"The Passinge Mesures" - harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani's recent recording of music of the English Virginalist School

Photo: Kaja Smith

Iranian/American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani’s recent CD “The Passinge Mesures” offers a representative selection of music of the English (and Welsh) Virginalist school, much of it appearing in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, but not all. The artist takes the listener on a journey into the riches of this genre and into his own very personal relationship into it, a “repertoire which I increasingly came to feel I was born to play”, in the artist’s own words.

 

We are talking about an entire genre that developed and functioned over only a few of decades, the entire school dying out completely by the middle of the 17th century. William Byrd, the first great master of the English Virginalist school of keyboard composition, presided over this era.  Indeed, Esfahani’s playing of Byrd’s “The nynth pavian and galliarde, the Passinge Mesures” (from which the disc takes its title, “Passinge Mesures” apparently being an English miswriting of “passamezzo”), the two dances written in the 1570s to a passamezzo antico bass, bristles with ideas, buoyant figurations and registration changes.  Esfahani’s resourceful playing of the two dances and the variations on each is validation of the fantasy and exuberance there to be unleashed in this music. As to John Bull’s Chromatic (Queen Elizabeth’s) pavan and galliard, its opening pavan emerged meditative and bewitching, with the artist’s playing of the galliard, albeit ornate, still reminding the listener of the joyful dance’s leaps and hops and of its defining feature - a vigorous jump on the last two beats of a phrase.

 

The great Welsh composer Thomas Tomkins, Byrd’s last surviving pupil, is represented on the disc. His setting of the popular 16th century ballad tune “Barafostus Dreame” (it is not clear who this man was and what kind of dream he had) opens majestically; Esfahani’s playing of the work is stylish, varied and exhilarating, the artist’s hallmark dexterity and incisive playing spelling out the course of the eight variations as he highlights the individuality of each. To me, one of the disc’s highlights is the performance of Tomkins’ Pavana (FVB CXXIII), ceremonious, plangent, and eloquent, Esfahani’s ornamentation sometimes profuse, indeed always fascinating, as are the unexpected harmonic shifts embedded here and there in the score. Other dances featured include the elegant Pavin ‘M.Orlando Gibbons’ by Gibbons himself and “Nobodyes Gigge”, a cheerful, compact piece by Richard Farnaby (Giles Farnaby’s lesser-known son, employed to teach Sir Nicholas Saunderson of Fillingham’s children ‘in skill of musick and plaieinge uppon instruments’)

 

With the simple melodic style of popular songs and folk tunes serving as a starting-point for composers of the English Virginal School to engage in elaborate forays into keyboard virtuosity, the disc also includes a selection of pieces based on song melodies - an anonymous setting of John Dowland’s wistful “Can she excuse my wrongs?” and Esfahani’s serene playing of  William Inglot’s empathic setting (one of several) of “The leaves bee greene”, a popular tune of the late 16th. Century, also referred to as “Browning”:

‘Browning Madame, browning Madame,

So merrily we sing browning Madame,
The fairest flower in the garden green,
 Is in my love's breast all comely seen,
And with all others, compare she can,
Therefore now let us sing browning Madame.’

Then there are a number of song-based pieces by Giles Farnaby, whose cousin, Nicholas Farnaby, a maker of virginals, may have been instrumental in pointing him in the direction of keyboard music and his subsequent contributions to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. I have heard performances of Farnaby’s “Wooddy-Cock” sounding like a lexicon of harpsichord techniques. Esfahani’s reading of it speaks of its temperament, invention and spirit; in his bold, unfettered playing of some variations, Esfahani does not waive articulacy in the name of harum-scarum complexity.

 

And if the fantasia is the composer’s unbuttoned invitation to spontaneity and free expression, this great keyboard artist meets him at eye level, as in John Bull’s Fantasia “Mr Dr Bull”, Esfahani identifying- and celebrating John Bull’s daring and individuality with his own, both their excursions into keyboard virtuosity taking the listener to the edge of his chair. Indeed, no less so in William Byrd’s “Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la”, also referred to as the “Hexachord Fantasia”, featuring the stepwise ascending and descending Guidonian hexachord as a recurrent subject (seventeen times, in fact) and including two song melodies. Esfahani, however, takes it a step further as he invites the piece to burgeon with the rich palette of his own natural and spontaneous expression.

 

Recorded in 2017 for the Hyperion label, most of the pieces are played on a double-manual harpsichord by Robert Goble & Son, Oxford (1990) based on an instrument made by Carl Conrad Fleischer, Hamburg (1710), with some works performed on virginals made by Huw Saunders, London (1989) and a copy of an instrument made by Thomas White, London (1642). The temperament used for the recording was quarter-comma meantone. The artist’s personal and informative liner notes make for interesting reading. Listening to the warm, richly resonant recording quality of “The Passinge Mesures”, with just enough of a hint of keyboard action heard, I felt as if I had been seated in Mahan Esfahani’s own music room to experience this music together with him. A disc of remarkable performance, conviction and originality! The album is dedicated to the memory of Canadian historic keyboard artist Bradford Tracey (1951-1987).

 

Photo: Miri Shamir

The Tel Aviv Collegium Singers, the Israel Brass Quintet and organist Aviad Stier perform at the Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem

Photo: Uri Zur

 

The Tel Aviv Collegium Singers (director/conductor: Yishai Steckler), Aviad Stier (organ) and the Israel Brass Quintet joined forces to present “Life and Death Experience - a Journey through the Liturgical Music of England & France”. The concert took place on May 12th 2018 at the Dormition Abbey, Mt. Zion, Jerusalem.   The program opened with Aviad Stier’s resourceful and focused performance of William Byrd’s Fantasy in A-minor, its many different sections proceeding in a rapid flow of quasi-improvisatory ideas. Then, to a number of Romantic choral works, the first being Edward Elgar’s 3 Motets, Op.2 (1887) - Ave Verum Corpus, Ave Maria and Ave Maris Stella - for soloist, mixed chorus and organ. Adding to the choir’s finely-blended timbre and highly dynamic singing was soloist soprano Sarah Even Haim’s calm, articulate and tasteful singing. Not one of Elgar’s more frequently performed works, its deep spirituality throughout and compositional style show the composer to have been a highly skilled and expressive composer of sacred choral music.   Gabriel Fauré’s “Messe basse” (Low Mass), the French analogue of the Missa brevis, was written originally for the village church of Villerville in Normandy. The final version, heard at this Jerusalem concert, written for upper voices, soloist and organ, is one of the few existing settings of the Mass for female voices and organ. Once again, Sarah Even Haim featured as soloist. Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine”, composed when the composer was twenty years old, is very much a precursor to the Requiem, with similarly lush, intense choral writing layered on top of its sparse organ accompaniment. Clearly inspired by the work’s beauty and delicacy, Steckler and his singers’ reading of it offered musical phrases of graceful archlike contours hovering above solemn harmonies. The work displays Fauré’s skilful blending of the French chanson genre and the liturgical motet, enhancing and underscoring Racine's sacred text.   Known for his operas and his popular “Ave Maria”, one is not always aware of the fact that Charles Gounod had written hundreds of vocal and choral sacred works. Accompanied by Aviad Stier on organ, the choir’s performance of Gounod’s restrained but lavish “Ave Verum Corpus” (1879) was beautifully shaped, direct and appealing and indicative of Gounod’s deep religious piety. Also well presented was César Franck’s setting of the Latin communion hymn “Panis Angelicus” (1872), one of the composer’s most enduring and most frequently arranged vocal pieces, its straightforward and lyrical melody set above a subtle and complex counterpoint.   Digressing from the concert’s French/English theme, the Israel Brass Quintet took the audience to Baroque Germany and Italy, opening with Contrapunctus IX from J.S.Bach’s “Art of Fugue”, the players’ lively interaction and clearly defined melodic lines making for an exciting performance of the challenging double fugue. Samuel Scheidt’s “Battle Suite” (1621), actually three separate pieces often performed as a group, was originally written for five viols, but Scheidt himself indicated that it could be performed on other instruments. As to the work’s possible programmatic content, it seems that the trumpets (Guy Sarig, Yuval Shapiro) represent the two battling sides in the “Galliard Battaglia”. The “Courant Dolorosa”, indeed dolorous, was given a tender and profound performance, the piece’s slower tempo allowing for some genial ornamentation. As to the joyful “Canzona Bergamasca”, the final piece, the artists highlighted its vivid play of imitation in some dramatic musical language. An impressive choice for this fine ensemble. Then, to Italian Jewish court composer Salamone Rossi’s (Hebrew) setting of Psalm 8. Rossi was the composer of the only extant collection of polyphonic music for the synagogue (Hashirim Asher Lish’lomo) to appear in print before the 19th century. Despite the absence of the verbal text in the Israel Brass Quintet’s rendition, the members created a performance that was beautifully crafted, pensive, expressive and luxuriant.   The concert ended with the Israel Brass Quintet joining the Tel Aviv Collegium Singers and Stier to perform Henry Purcell’s “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary”. For her funeral ceremony in March 1695, Purcell composed a brass canzona and the anthem “Thou know'st, Lord”, the ceremonial music also including previously-composed material, including two funeral anthems. For the Jerusalem concert, the brass quintet, together with choir assistant Itay Berkovich on drum, was located in an upper gallery of the church. The quintet’s uncompromising and majestic  brass playing (the work’s majestic and impactful character endorsed by the drum) was punctuated by the choir’s contemplative, devout and occasionally vehement singing of the funeral texts, their spirit anguished when not serene and reflective. Via diction that was articulate, the singers gave expression to the work’s tragic meaning and message. Queen Mary had been one of England's most beloved monarchs and her death from smallpox just after Christmas of 1694 plunged the nation into genuine grief.   “Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and ne'er continueth in one stay” (Book of Common Prayer, Order for the Burial of the Dead)   Maestro Steckler and the artists gave a gripping performance of one of the English Baroque’s most heartfelt and melancholy works.

 

 

The Gloriana Ensemble performs "Though Amaryllis Dance in Green" at St. Andrew's Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem

“Though Amaryllis Dance in Green”, the Gloriana Ensemble’s recent concert, took place on December 20th 2014 at St. Andrews Scots Memorial Church, Jerusalem. Established in 2010, the group today, consisting of five singers – Lucie Bloch-soprano, Noar Lee Naggan-countertenor, Hillel Sherman-tenor, Yoram Bar Akiva-baritone and Joel Sivan-bass - specializes in performing sacred and secular polyphonic music from the Renaissance and Baroque.

Apart from one Spanish- and two French pieces, the ensemble’s new program is made up of a-cappella works from England and Italy, the connection between the two briefly outlined by Hillel Sherman, who introduced works on the program, providing some background about each. When King Henry VIII sent his agents to Venice to engage for his court the best wind and viol players Europe had to offer, the stage was set for English music to be transformed. The music at Queen Elizabeth I’s court took Italian music to its heart, blending it with the inherited glories of earlier English music to produce one of the richest and most evocative repertoires in musical history.

Showing the genre’s sometime connection with Italy, the concert opened with the paradigm of the Renaissance English madrigal, Thomas Morley’s ebullient and effervescent ballett of 1596 “Now Is the Month of Maying” (based on a canzonet of Orazio Vecchi), the English spring freshness and humor of its words only marginally masking its risqué text. The Gloriana Ensemble’s flexible, bright and engaging singing of it promised an evening of pleasurable listening. In William Byrd’s “Is Love a Boy?” (1589), the text’s enigmatic and troubling questions came thick and fast from each voice, emerging with individuality and a sense of urgency, highlighted by Byrd’s sophisticated writing and a play of dynamics. The singers presented the dense contrapuntal texture of Byrd’s “Though Amaryllis Dance in Green”, from which the Gloriana Ensemble’s program takes its name, making incisive use of consonants Then, to one of the many vivid early English market-place street-sellers’ songs: to play out all the levels of meaning in John Dowland’s “Fine Knacks for Ladies” (1600), with its descriptive detail, its teasing syncopations and courtly puns, the singers gave much attention to each word, to timbral colors, to detached phrases as against more legato moments, finally leading to the song’s message – that love remains true in the heart more so than any pretty trinkets for sale. Performing these pieces depends greatly on fine diction and the flavor of British English; the Gloriana singers did not disappoint.

Still in the realm of secular music, but leaving England, we heard three light-hearted songs. In “Le Chant des Oiseaux” by Clement Janequin (c.1485-1568), one of Paris’s foremost chanson composers, the four men dealt admirably with the song’s tricky, onomatopoeic text, its comical patter and descriptive calls of thrushes, robins, nightingales and cuckoos. The singers then delivered an upbeat, witty reading of 16th century Spanish composer Juan del Encina’s “Cucu,cucu”, a song more about adultery than ornithology. In Pierre Passereau’s “Il est bel et bon”, in which two country women brag about their husbands, the singers combined the chanson’s grace and lightness with its hints of rustic directness and double entendres.


The young man singing to his lady-love in Orlando di Lasso’s “Matona mia cara” is a German, probably a soldier; the song, a parody of how Germans spoke in broken Italian, With much animation, the singers conveyed the young man’s infatuation and the lack of subtlety of his intentions! Even more curious is “Allala pia calia”, one of six “moresches” composed by Lasso in a dialect influenced by Moors living in Renaissance Italy. Enjoying the theatrical antics of this flamboyant, unabashedly bawdy villanella, the Gloriana singers took on board its rhythmic and syllabic effects, allowing for an imaginative and richly dynamic performance.
The program presented a number of sacred works. In Orlando di Lasso’s luminous motet “Justorum Animae”, the singers presented the piece’s rich texture, its unique tenderness and hope. Lasso’s curious motet “Super Flumina Babylonis” Psalm 136 (137), speaking of the Hebrews in captivity in Babylon, saw the singers lending whimsy to the game Lasso plays with syllables and the comical spelling out of letters and words in his strange form of humor. A pivotal work in sacred section of the program was (some of) Venetian composer Giovanni Croce’s “Nove Lamentatione”, a lofty, spiritual piece sung to texts from the Book of Lamentations. In the program notes, Dr. Alon Schab (Haifa University) wrote about this mysteriously unknown work, whose original parts are in the Münster Regional Ecumenical Library (Germany). With Hillel Sherman reading the text of each section, the male singers, conducted by Joel Sivan, took listeners into the pious and mournful mood of Lamentations, allowing time to place phrases strategically, these phrase endings carefully shaped. On a lighter note, the quintet performed Mantuan Jewish violinist and composer Salamone Rossi’s “Hallelujah” (Psalm 146) from the composer’s 1622 groundbreaking collection of Hebrew motets, always a crowd-pleaser and for good reasons!

William Byrd’s wonderfully contemplative and stately “Confirma Hoc Deus” boasts two superb soprano magical parts, here, not entirely matched in timbre by Noar Lee Naggan’s reedy countertenor sound and Lucie Bloch’s delicate, slimmer soprano voice. This was followed by Thomas Tallis’ small anthem “O Nata Lux”, suitably bathed in “light”, its homophonic texture colored with cross-rhythms harmonic dicords to evoke the suffering conveyed in its text.

With a new line-up of singers, Ensemble Gloriana has much to offer its audience in the way of polished, well-informed performance, fine intonation, excellent diction and interesting repertoire. Some singers are more communicative with the audience than others. Pieces conducted by Joel Sivan fared better than those not; his warm, blending voice provides the ideal bass line for Renaissance and Baroque music. Noar Lee Naggan's sturdy countertenor voice adds body to the general sound Lucie Bloch’s creamy, delicate voice and Noar Lee Naggan’s pithy vocal timbre do not always find a meeting point. But the group's performance is stylish, delving into the profound and spiritual mood of scacred music and reaching out generously to the insouciance inherent in secular vocal repertoire of the time.