Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY TEATIME CONCERT UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
Alan Cooper
02 December 2009
King's College Chapel
Frauke Jürgensen and her intrepid band of young student performers must be congratulated on a fascinating concert that pulled back the curtain on a whole world of baroque musical gems from France, Germany and finally England. More than twenty young musicians participated in this event in which everyone was really performing as a soloist. Even in Wednesday’s largest ensemble, unlike in a large orchestra or choir where you can often rely on others, there was nowhere to hide; the spotlight was on you all the time. Every performer had to pull his or her weight and that they all did, with many of the performers singing or playing in public for the first time. The enthusiastic support that everyone had from fellow students in the audience was heartening too.
There were of course some talents which shone more brightly than others, showing real promise, but nobody at all let the side down. It is the critic’s job to cherry pick however and that I will now do. From the outset I was impressed by the harpsichord playing of David Erzberger. In Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pièce de clavecin en concert III his playing was the powerhouse of the music right from the start. It took a little longer for Jenna Main on violin and Dian Underwood on viola da gamba to make their mark but by the second and especially the third sections they revved up to full power and delivered all the earthy kick in the air of these French country dances.
Orphée descendant aux enfers was a subject which must have tickled the imagination of the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier since he later wrote a three act opera on the same subject but in this cantata for three male voices the ubiquitous Ed Jones was the counter-tenor soloist. He managed not to crack a single note in music that goes down to a range that is highly testing even for the most accomplished exponent of this type of singing. Tenor Cole Bendall and baritone Liam Baillie gave strong confident performances as well.
Moving from France to Germany and the music of Johann Hermann Schein I was richly impressed with the magnificent mezzo-soprano vocal quality of Fiona Hunnisett. However, she, and indeed most of the other singers need to work on their diction. The words, even if they are in German or French, matter every bit as much as the notes. Just listen to Aberdeen tenor Neil Mackie or any of his pupils. That’s what made him a star. You never need the words in front of you when he sings.
Two more fine mezzos impressed me in Lobet den Herren by Schütz. They were Hilde Neilsen and Sarah Petrie with Ed Jones returning this time at the organ then with David Erzberger at the Aubertin a pair of sopranos Jillian Christie and Isla Thompson easily filled the Chapel with their singing in O Jesulein, mein Jesulein.
Frauke Jürgensen provided the chamber organ accompaniment for the quartet who sang Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland by Schütz before she shot upstairs to the Aubertin to accompany Jillian Christie in Purcell’s Evening Hymn a lovely ending to the concert. Once again, let me say how splendid it was to hear so many young people participating so actively in real music making.