Gotham Early Music Scene (3/30/23)

La Serenissima: Music from the Republic of Venice (697–1797)

ALBA Consort – Margo Andrea ~ mezzo-soprano, vielle & zills; Carlo Valte ~ oud; Rex Benincasa ~ percussion, tenor & psaltery; Jason Priset ~ lute, guitar & vihuela

Si dolce e’l tormento – Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
Ch’amor sia nudo – Francesca Caccini (1587– ca. 1645)
Vella de vos, Villancicos de diversos Autores – Mateo Flecha? (1481–1553)
Dime Robadora, aka Cancionero de Uppsala – Anonymous, Cancionero de Venecia (pub. Venice, 1556)
Bashraf Huseyni – Sultan Korkut of Anatolia (1467–1513)
Cypriot Ballad #64: S’on veult d’Amours – Anonymous, Turino Manuscript (Cyprus, 14th c.)
Bashraf Nawa – Emir iHaj (Egypt, 16th c.)
Se mai per maraveglia (laude) – Anonymous, pub. Franciscus Bossinensis (fl. 1509–1511)
Ostinato vo seguire (pub. Venice, 1511) – Bartoleomeo Tromboncino (1470–1535) with Ricercar by Francesco da Milano (1497–1535)
Dunulá – Sephardic Traditional, Greece

First things, first. The date 697, above, refers to Venice, not the music on this concert. Instruments that may seem weird or new to you include: vielle, which is very similar (to my eye and ear) to a viola; zills that seemed to be a heavyweight version of finger cymbals, not so much ringing as clapping; the oud looked to me like a lute but with a larger sounding chamber and possibly two different ways of plucking/strumming the strings; psaltery which was neither a book nor a piece of furniture, but a fretboard-less box zither, played lying flat across the musician’s thighs; while the vihuela is a 15th-century plucked instrument, similar to a guitar. That said, I did not detect any differences in sound between those specialized instruments and the ones they were/are similar to. Go figure.

With ten pieces on the program, I’ll be commenting on only a few.

The concert opened with a slow piece that had an intro of plucked (as opposed to strummed) strings. Then the mezzo joined and sang three strophic verses that had vocal ornamentation in the third. 

After a quicker second piece with mezzo and instruments, the third was totally instrumental, slower, but it also included light percussion in the form of a single hand-held drum. It was calm without being somber. 

In looking at my notes, the rest of the concert followed along those lines, so I’ll skip to the end. The last work had an instrumental opening, then the tenor entered, followed by the mezzo. There was a very energetic back-and-forth duet leading to a whirling dervish ending. 

Overall, the playing and singing were lots of fun and very interesting. I had a really good time.

ConcertMeister