Bel a cappella | Ancient Lands
May 8, 2022, St. Augustine’s, Balmain, NSW
On a glorious Autumn afternoon, we were blessed to be able to experience the glorious contemporary sounds of Bel a cappella in St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Balmain. Although Covid had reduced the size of the choir, they decided to go ahead with the performance anyway, in a less formal, more intimate context.
Anthony Pasquill, artistic and musical director, had chosen a wonderfully intriguing program of works mostly from the 21st century, including three works by Australian composers (Kate Moore, Joseph Twist and Alice Chance).
The concert began with Kate Moore’s Eclipsed Vision, which made wonderful use of St. Augustines’ acoustics. The choristers filed through the church, down one aisle and back up another, each humming a different note that had been given to them on a card, which was replaced with one containing a different note at every circuit of the hall. This resulted in exquisite murmurations of gradually evolving harmonies as each singer interacted with the acoustics of the church. To me, it sounded like music of the spheres – relating to the composer’s concept that the filing choristers alluded to the trajectory of the planets around the sun. Having the choristers walk past me so closely gave me a feeling of involvement, as I could hear the individual voices as each walked by – a truly intimate and interesting opening.
Bel a cappella then reassembled more formally and sang the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo from the highly appropriate Missa a Cappella by Finnish composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara. Rautavaara described his more recent compositions in terms of “sound fields” and “tone clusters” of close intervals with a pleasing dissonant edge. Bel a capella’s intense performance of these close harmonies belied the fact that their numbers were reduced.
I was somewhat surprised when the choir returned with wine glasses containing a clear liquid (presumably water) for the performance of Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Earth teach me quiet. This prayer to the earth by the Ute people of North America combined the sound of the choir singing Earth teach me quiet . . . (followed by different endings) with their rubbing of their glass rims (effectively a giant glass harmonica) and the mellow sound of the marimba, expertly played by Josh Hill. The effect was transporting.
We were returned to Australia with Alice Chance’s Holy Dreaming. Written in 2018, the work aspired to be a companion to Ross Edwards’ Mass of the Dreaming: Missa Alchera and was inspired by the words of Reverend Lenore Parker in A Thanksgiving for Australia. The beautiful harmonies reverberated at full volume in this beautiful church, with soloists Vanessa Goryl (Soprano), Pepe Newton (alto), Geordie Marsh (tenor) and Edward Phillips (bass) singing in rhythmic interludes.
After Interval we were transported to Sainte-Chapelle in Paris with a work by Eric Whitacre, commissioned by the Tallis Scholars. This work describes a story about an innocent girl walking into the church, and angels, depicted in a stained glass window, singing to her. Opening with plainchant-like lines, the music becomes increasingly complex, with high register lines floating eerily in the spacious church (both here and in imagined Paris) and gradually becoming more passionate before diminishing peacefully.
Rautavaara’s Missa a cappella returned with the Sanctus and Benedictus, which gave the whole program a sense of unification, as Bel a cappella continued with the Agnus Dei after an interlude, where they sang Da pace Domine, a 16th century motet by Carlo Gesualdo, completed by Stravinsky in 1959. Gesualdo’s music was very experimental at its time and Stravinsky had no problem completing the work 400 years later. I could not tell which parts were added in the 20th century – I enjoyed it immensely.
The program concluded with the work that inspired the title of today’s concert: Hymn of Ancient Lands by Joseph Twist. Using a fragment of a 7th century hymn recorded by Bede, Twist juxtaposed three languages in interpreting this text: the soprano soloist, Margot McLaughlin, sang the original Old English, while the choir sang in Latin and Modern English. The hymn was interpreted in many different ways from intensely meditative to rhythmic and dance-like, ending in triumphant joy.
The audience burst into appreciative applause! Bel a cappella’s performance was a triumph in this most beautiful concert, and, had I not been told, I would not have known their numbers were reduced. I can only add, Bravo!
Sketches Heidi Hereth
Photo: Anthony Pasquill
