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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
February 18, 2011
Look in any dictionary of quotations under the word "music" and you will find a significant proportion of the entries are by William Shakespeare. For Shakespeare, music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, it is (conditionally, at any rate) the food of love, and the man that hath not it within him is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils and not to be trusted. (Amen to that, we all say.)
As these are in addition to the manifold actual songs quoted - and presumably performed - in the plays themselves ("Where the bee sucks", "Full fathom five" and many more) it would clearly be no exaggeration to say that music was important to Shakespeare and his audience.
Friday's concert by the Baltimore Consort was predicated on this notion and subtitled "Heavenly Harmony and Earthly Delight in Shakespeare's England", as fine an eight-word-encapsulation of the performance as one could imagine.
A blow-by-blow accounting of the concert would probably interest few - a continuous stream of superlatives can easily become tedious - and so I shall merely mention some of the outstanding moments in an evening that was, frankly, one highlight after another.
The opening instrumental pieces displayed the traits which have, justifiably, propelled the Baltimore Consort to the very apex of the early music world: superb ensemble, an entirely natural sense of rubato and, perhaps most of all, a joyful and spontaneous vitality, a unanimity which only comes with several decades of playing together.
Individually, the players are masters (and mistresses) of their craft; collectively - well, of all the early music ensembles I have had the good fortune to hear, the Baltimores are almost certainly my personal favourites.
And then we had soprano Danielle Svonavec. Perhaps - just perhaps - her opening song, "O Mistress Mine" seemed just a little underpowered, although there was no doubting the beauty of her voice.
Her later contributions, though, were without exception simply gorgeous, whether the ardent inflexions of Dowland's "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite", or the beguilingly flirtatious "The Courteous Carman and the Amorous Maid". Svonavec has a wonderful natural instrument, with every note round and clear and never a hint of harshness. Moreover, she uses her voice with great intelligence and sensitivity, with nary a hint of archness or artifice.
The evening was also enlightened by occasional spoken extracts from the Swan of Avon, and even a little thespianism from Messrs. Cudek and Lipkis; I particularly enjoyed the latter's party piece as Malvolio, complete with striped stockings and a rather lumbering dance. Honesty compels me to admit, however, that in choosing music over a theatrical life Cudek and Lipkis undoubtedly made the wise decision.
It is surely a measure of my own enjoyment, if nothing else, that somewhere in the second half of the evening my notebook simply peters out: I was simply engrossed.
I do clearly recall, though, that the final song "It Was a Lover and His Lass" was (aptly) a showstopper. Hey, nonny, nonny! indeed.
Every time I have seen the Baltimore Consort my expectations have been high, but they have invariably been bettered by the actuality. Long may they flourish.
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