Stages of Love

The Concord Ensemble is aptly named. In a Berkeley Festival concert Wednesday night in Hertz Hall, the individual voices of the ensemble's six men produced a wonderful concord of sound and style. The program of Spanish secular music during the Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries) was organized into six sections, showing the course of true love through its various stages: Courtship, The Lovers, The Wedding Banquet, The Betrayal, A Bitter End, and Fortune's Whims.

Embedded in the center of the opening section was a reading from Cervantes: a letter to Dulcinea from Don Quixote, that quintessentially deluded lover. From the beginning, the themes of the devoted lover and the gorgeous but indifferent object of his love were sounded. The singers were introduced in small groupings — a quartet, a trio, quintets, and finally the entire sextet. By the end of the section, the audience had gradually encountered the sounds and personalities of countertenor Paul Flight, alto/tenor/reader Pablo Corá, wide-ranging tenors N. Lincoln Hanks and Daniel Carberg, baritone Matthew Leese, and bass-baritone Scott Graff. The three inner voices, notably Corá's, often took the lead musically, enhancing rather than diminishing the overall ensemble balance. The Lovers section consisted entirely of songs by the immensely gifted composer Juan Vasquez. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the continuing theme of the ardent but often disappointed lover, the richness of Vasquez' writing made this a felicitous grouping, beginning with a pervasive upward-third motif in De los álamos vengo, madre (I come from seeing the poplars and my girlfriend in Seville) and ending with a pianissimo farewell to Zagaleja de lo verde (Little shepherdess of the greens). A sudden outburst, Ay,ay,ay,ay, que ravio y muero (Oh that I rage and die), gave weight to the despairing words "duro y fuerte" (hard and strong) — words that later appeared in a complaint by Francisco Guerrero. The wedding songs began with a reading referring to the Biblical wedding at Cana, and ended with a lively Chacona by Juan Arañés, describing in hilarious and highly secular detail an enormous cast of characters attending a wedding celebration. The singers had a lot of fun with the refrain, "A la vida, vidita bona, vida vámonos a Chacona" (Here's to life, to the good life, my life, let's dance the chaconne), ably abetted by a guest percussionist with castanets. Other highlights: Vasquez' Quien dize quel'ausencia (Absence makes the heart grow fonder), a trio eloquently sung by alto, tenor, and baritone; the same composer's two settings of Lágrimas de mi consuelo (Tears of my consolation), especially the first one, characterized by extraordinary episodes of dissonance and resolution; and another reading by Pablo Corá from Don Quixote: "De ese modo, no es cordura querer curar la pasión, cuando los remedios son: muerte, mudanza y locura" (It makes no sense to seek a cure for passion, when the only remedies are death, inconstancy, and madness). Four different composers set the same poem: Recuerde el alma dormida. The last setting, by Juan Navarro, ended the concert: "Remember the sleeping soul ... How does death arrive? Very quietly." Daniel Zuluaga's program notes were helpful in providing the historical context for this repertoire, both political and musical. (Zuluaga's name will be familiar to those who heard him playing theorbo with L'estro Harmonico on Friday.)

Enter a Renaissance Band

The Concord Ensemble returned to Hertz Hall Friday night for a concert with the Renaissance band Piffaro. And lo and behold, there was the castanet player from Wednesday, Tom Zajac, playing just about everything except castanets. In fact, the six members of Piffaro (expanded to seven by a guest) play among them five shawms, two sackbuts, five recorders, three bagpipes, two dulcians, a variety of percussion instruments, lute, guitar, harp, pipe, and tabor, with a little singing thrown in. Sackbuts and shawms started the program, which reached back into the 15th century, focusing on the Medici family in Florence. The singers stood behind the players, then came forward to sing with lute and harp accompaniment. This movement back and forth continued for several more pieces, with the singers emerging in various combinations and retreating as the instruments took over. Finally all the singers alternated with all the players in a great semicircle across the stage, for the performance of Villana che sa tu far? (Shepherdess, what can you do?). The composer was anonymous, as are many in this early repertoire, and the decidedly secular dialog was just getting interesting when the Italian words for "lift your legs" slid into Latin — "Hear our prayer" — followed by the Kyrie and Christe of the Mass, producing a striking example of the blurring of the lines between sacred and secular in music of this period. Heinrich Isaac was hired by the Medici in 1485 and stayed in Florence until his death in 1512. His lament on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici was beautifully sung by the Concord Ensemble: "Quis dabit capiti meo aquam?" (Who will give water to my head? Who will give to my eyes a fountain of tears?). Two Dominican songs began with unison chanting: Torna, torna (Turn back ... to Jesus), which developed into part singing and was accompanied by several instruments; and Allegro canto (Joyful I sing ... of Saint Dominic), in which the chant leads to highly florid solo singing. Carro della morte (Procession of the dead), beginning and ending with "Dolor, pianto e penitenza" (Sorrow, tears, and penitence), was accompanied by low instruments. Throughout the concert, the singers sometimes performed a cappella but mostly were paired with various instruments: the mellow sackbuts; the reedy shawms; the quiet plucked harp, lute, or guitar; the bracing bagpipes. The instrumental pieces were orchestrated imaginatively: for example, five recorders for a piece by Arcadelt; two bagpipes, guitar, and tambourine for the anonymous La giloxia; shawms and sackbuts for Isaac's Palle, palle. The large, enthusiastic audience craved an encore, and the entire company of players and singers obliged with a reprise of Torna, torna.