Concert Review of An American Holiday Tapestry
By Clarence Fanto, Special to The Eagle
Berkshire Eagle (Great Barrington, Massachusetts
December 9, 2008
Rose Ensemble travels the world
GREAT BARRINGTON — Musical archaeology — deep excavation into rarely-explored byways of early world music — is the calling card of the Rose Ensemble, the St. Paul, Minn.-based group that has carved out a unique, cross-cultural niche. On display over the weekend in its third annual early December appearance at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center was a program titled "An American Holiday Tapestry."
But American music occupied only about a quarter of this ambitiously conceived, deeply researched presentation that encompassed distinct streams of Jewish music, traditional Bedouin songs, Hawaiian folk tunes, samplings of Mexican baroque and, from this country, original Shaker songs, Acadian dances and several brief works by composers from a group known as the First New England School — quite a smorgasbord of music rarely encountered, as presented by Yehuda Hanani's Close Encounters With Music series.
Authenticity is the calling card of the Rose performers, and the 15 first-class singers and instrumentalists, led by founder and artistic director Jordan Sramek, lived up to their well-earned reputation.
Performed before an audience of around 500, give or take, this was more than a concert; it was an intense immersion into world culture. The group combines an academically-based educational experience within a highly-accessible, listener-friendly format of off-the-beaten-path entertainment.
The opening segment, a product of Sramek's three-week archival research project in Jerusalem, yielded greater historical than musical interest — with the exception of a hauntingly evocative Hassidic melody from the synagogues of eastern Europe and a pair of traditional Bedouin songs from South Sinai, filling a gap caused by the lack of Islamic liturgical music.
The Hebrew chants from the Torah and from the 19th-century Parisian community would have been more at home in a synagogue setting.
The Rose Ensemble's wide-ranging interests include exploration of traditional Hawaiian musical culture, including pieces composed for King David Kalakaua and Queen Emma, wife of King Kamehameha IV.
After a quick change into colorful Hawaiian skirts, shirts and leis, the now-barefoot performers offered a pleasing musical travelogue with outstanding hula dancing and chanting by soprano Kim Sueoka, a native of Kauai, Hawaii, who also played the ipu, a percussion instrument made from gourds that provides the hula beat. One could easily imagine lounging on the sand by the ocean, caressed by gentle Pacific breezes.
Introducing the Mexican Baroque portion of the concert, Sramek told the audience that this music represented the high-society influence of 17th-century Spanish composers combined with native street and dance rhythms. Performed on traditional as well as modern instruments, these distinctively original compositions represented the evening's most intriguing discoveries.
Also of great value was the concluding segment devoted to early American holiday music, ranging from an 1849 African-American Shaker spiritual, "Pretty Home," to a strikingly harmonized "Give Good Gifts," from the North family of the nearby Mount Lebanon, N.Y., Shaker colony just over the border from Hancock.
Following an instrumental interlude of traditional Acadian dances and the spiritual "Still Water" by Thomas Hastings, the evening's rousing conclusion from Colonial America, "Juice of Barley," "Drive the Winter Away" and "Sherburne" brought the crowd to its feet.
The inclusion of Sramek's detailed program notes and texts enhanced the listeners' experience.
As purveyors of distinctive, rarely-heard repertoire, the Rose Ensemble offers great pleasure as well as insight into diverse international cultures. With 75 performances annually in this country and abroad, and seven recordings to their credit, these highly-skilled performers are making their mark on the crowded early-music scene.
One hopes to encounter them on return engagements hereabouts.