Review of Cantiga!, Vocal and Instrumental Music from the Land of Three Faiths concert
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
By Clarence Fanto, News & Cultural Affairs Director
WAMC Northeast Radio, December 4, 2006
The Close Encounters classical music series based in the Berkshires is well-known for its adventurous, innovative programming. Last Saturday at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, artistic director Yehuda Hanani struck gold by presenting a remarkable evening of rarely-heard medieval and Renaissance-era vocal music.
The program, "Cantiga!, Vocal and Instrumental Music from the Land of Three Faiths," featured songs, instrumental selections and even readings from pre-Inquisition Spain, before 1492, when Catholics, Sephardic Jews, and Muslims from Arabia co-existed in a culturally diverse society. The first-class Rose Ensemble, an early-music group based in Minnesota, presented over two hours of sacred music that included traditional Sephardic melodies from Morocco, Turkey and the Balkans, as well as vocal selections by nearly-forgotten Spanish composers. Cantiga refers to 12th and 13th-century songs from the Iberian Peninsula, most of them extolling the Virgin Mary, and performed a capella by the 12 Rose Ensemble singers.
Some of the songs simply reflect the thriving Jewish culture during this period of Spain's history. Often resembling Gregorian Chant, these unison, monophonic selections received technically near-perfect performances. But they lacked variety, inducing a feeling of been-there, heard-that as the evening progressed.
More lively were the polyphonic selections by Spanish composers of the 16th and 17th centuries, since these featured the excellent Rose Ensemble singers accompanied by antique musical instruments such as the vielle, the rebec, the dumbek, the ud (OOD), a cow-bone, and an array of African percussion. There was even a hurdy-gurdy that opened and closed for contrasting volume. It sounded like a combination of bagpipes and an organ-grinder.
Adding variety to the program was a handful of spiritual folk-songs from the Italian Renaissance period. These Hebraic settings of the synagogue liturgy were composed in an area between Rome and Milan, and between Genoa and Venice, where Jews thrived during the 16th century after their expulsion from the Spanish Empire.
During its first 10 years of existence, the Rose Ensemble has been honored with prestigious awards. And with good reason. The group is blazing new trails in seldom-heard byways of early music, far off the beaten path. The performers were rewarded with a highly enthusiastic ovation by the 400-plus concertgoers.
For listeners, it was a genuine Close Encounter of the most unusual kind. For WAMC, I'm Clarence Fanto.