Héloïse Werner by Birdwatcher 42, CC BY-SA 4.0
A second visit to The Wig in one week – this will be our last of the season. While we planned two visits in quick succession, I hadn’t realised, when we booked these concerts, that we would be seeing Karim Sulayman twice in one week:
Janie and I reckon that Karim noticed – he gave us an appreciative nod as the ensemble left the stage on the Friday.
As with the Tuesday concert, we were treated to a mixture of early music and modern serious music. In truth, as always, the early music did much more for us than the modern.
This is what we heard:
- Pauline Oliveros – Sounds from Childhood from Sonic Meditation
- Lara Agar – slow two (arranged by Colin Alexander)
- Jean de Ockeghem – D’ung aultre amer (arranged by Colin Alexander & Héloïse Werner)
- Claudio Monteverdi – A che tormi il ben mio (arranged by Colin Alexander & Héloïse Werner)
- William Byrd – Come woeful Orpheus
- Claudio Monteverdi – Non m’è grave il morire
- Josquin des Prez – Entré je suis en grant pensée (transcribed for cello trio)
Interval
- John Dunstaple – O rosa bella (transcribed for cello trio)
- Josquin des Prez – En l’ombre d’un buissonnet
- Claudio Monteverdi – Amor, per tua mercè vatten’a quella
- John Dunstaple – Puisque m’amour (arranged by Colin Alexander & Héloïse Werner)
- Claudio Monteverdi – Ecco mormorar l’onde SV51 (arranged by Colin Alexander & Héloïse Werner)
- Colin Alexander – Intro
- Héloïse Werner – Light, persists for vocal quintet and cello trio (world première): I. introduction • II. quidquid • III. luce • IV. fuit • V. tenebris • VI. agit • VII. chorale
The musicians clearly enjoyed performing the modern music – especially Sounds From Childhood. I had that “I can get all that at home” feeling when hearing the gurgling and raspberry noises.
There’s not much Héloïse Werner and Colin Alexander on-line, but here is a short concert extract that gives an idea of their modern music style.
I am especially partial to a bit of Ockegham. Here is a recording of D’ung aultre amer.
We are also partial to a bit of Josquin. Here are The Kings Singers performing En l’ombre d’un buissonnet:
I was particularly keen to hear some Dunstaple live – you don’t get a lot of Dunstaple live round these parts. Here’s a recording of Puisque M’Amour.
The Monteverdi worked especially well as arrangements for voices and cellos. In the absence of that, here is a decent recording of Ecco Mormorar L’Onde: