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Church of St. John the Divine
April 9, 2006
This is not what I call propitious: a group of twelve led by a thirteenth person - on Palm Sunday. Defying the omen, vox humana, under the direction of Wendy McMillan, produced a marvelous performance of some masterpieces of sixteenth and seventeenth century polyphony.
The programme began with a pair of verses from the plainchant Adoro Te, the remaining verses of the chant were interspersed between parts of the first half of the performance. Right from the first notes of the Adoro Te, with McMillan leading the rest of the choir singing the response, it was clear that vox humana is a really good choir. The unison singing was bang on.
The plainsong segued into Palestrina's Super Flumina Bablilonis and this was followed by Monteverdi's Messa a 4 voci da cappella. It quickly became apparent that vox humana can do more than sing plainsong. Renaissance polyphony is complex, sophisticated music and not easy to sing. The choir tackled it with aplomb. The ensemble was impeccable. As through the rest of the evening, the singers paid careful attention to the text, interpreting each verse appropriately.
During the first half of the performance, the singers were arrayed in a semicircle. The singers were not grouped by pitch. Indeed, no soprano was adjacent to any other soprano. Nor was any tenor beside another tenor, and so on. The result was a lovely integrated sound that was perfectly appropriate to the music. We need to remember that, when this music was originally sung, the choristers were huddled around a single choir book, not neatly divided into trebles, altos and so on.
The music became more complex as the evening progressed. The first two pieces were in four parts. Monteverdi's motet, Adoramus Te Christe, the last on the first half, was in six parts. All three pieces in the second half were in eight parts: Gabrieli's Magnificat a 8 voci, Palestrina's Stabat Mater a 8 voci and the Ave Maria of 1572 by Tomás Luis de Victoria (who may have studied with Palestrina during the time he spent in Rome).
As the music became more complex, the choir (literally) did not miss a beat. (During the second half of the programme, McMillan sang with the choir as well as directing. She had the choir reconfigured into two groups for these complex works.) Each piece was distinctively characterised. Palestrina's Stabat Mater was ineffably sad. The Ave Maria of Victoria - regarded by his contemporaries as a particularly joyful composer - was happily serene.
I was most impressed by the female members of the group. On the whole, vox humana has a top down sound. But that is how this music sounds best.
In his preview of this concert my colleague Deryk Barker wondered whether all of our city's choirs are composed of the same set of busy singers. In fact, there was remarkably little overlap between vox humana and some of the other ensembles I have reviewed lately. For example, only two members of vox humana also performed with CapriCCio in the St. John Passion three weeks ago. Wendy McMillan and Allison Ward of vox humana were Victoria Choral Society soloists in the St. Matthew Passion a week ago. (Respectively, they were Acilla II/Uxor Pilati and Ancilla I. They impressed me on that occasion.) I was told, however, by someone in a position to know that the VCS brought in McMillan and Ward as ringers. (I know someone who knows someone. No names.)
We should not be surprised by the success of this choir. My source tells me that many of them including Kristen Birley and Stephanie Landucci are graduates of the UVic voice programme. No doubt others in the choir have received equally good training. This is not a group of amateur music lovers.
The concert was nicely set off by the lovely surroundings of the church of St. John the Divine, probably one of the most beautiful churches in Victoria. The acoustics are also good in most of the church.
Let us put this concert in some perspective. I have been listening a lot lately to recordings of renaissance polyphony by The Sixteen, directed by Harry Christophers. vox humana is not The Sixteen and Wendy McMillan is not Harry Christophers. Apart from anything else, McMillan's sopranos sound like human beings, not choirboys on steroids. Still, the local choir put on a very good performance. Make it a point to hear them next time they offer a programme of this sort.
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