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Lutheran Church of the Cross
February 4, 2012
The Hexaphone vocal group is now in its 10th concert season, performing mainly on the Island. The six-member ensemble covers a wide range of styles from classical to jazz, with particular emphasis on new Canadian compositions. Yesterday's programme featured mostly European and American music, beginning with ear-pleasing renditions of choral works by Brahms, Mäntyjärvi and Rheinberger, and followed by a fast-forward-in-time to Take 6, Cole Porter and Duke Ellington.
The group performed the delicate Drei Gesänge, Op. 42 by Brahms with more gusto than one might be used to. Especially the Vineta was accomplished with such great speed that some of the subaquatic mystery evaporated in the process. (Vineta is the name of a mythical city asleep in the depths of the Baltic Sea, its wealth once comparable to that of Constantinople and, to this day, the destination of optimistic treasure hunters.)
The romantic spell induced by Brahms was broken by the more cerebral Shakesperean Songs by contemporary Finnish composer Jaako Mäntyjärvi. His eclectic style ranges from classical and atonal to pure declamation. It may not be easy listening, but neither is it boring. The Lullaby finished with the harmonies blending beautifully and culminating in a single, liquid phrase by the tenor.
Like Mäntyjärvi , Joseph Rheinberger is probably not well known to modern audiences, yet during the 19th century he was a prolific composer of operas, symphonies, chamber music and choral works. His brief Abendlied lulled us back into the romantic mindset before the intermission.
Having been slightly disappointed in the ensemble's classical performance, I had hoped that they would find their feet in the vocal arrangements of English and Scottish folk songs, as well as in the excerpts from the musical Anything Goes. Well, the music was inevitably different, but the delivery not so different after all. Included in the programme were four musical sketches composed by baritone Nicholas Fairbank, based on amusingly nonsensical limericks by Edward Lear. A sample:
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared! -
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.
The musical scope of the Hexaphone singers resembles that of the Swingle Singers, but the similarity ends there. Even so, their excellent interaction and diction, coupled with their enthusiasm and sense of humour, struck a chord with the audience, provoking heartfelt admiration and laughter.
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