Midtown Concerts – Gotham Early Music Scene (1/4/2024)

Angelica Women’s Chamber Choir – A Battle of the Sexes: Italian Composers from 1300 to 1800

Well, that’s quite a mouth full. And Marie Caruso led twelve female vocalists (three of whom also played recorders, with one recordist also being a finger cymbalist, and one vocalist also playing the viola da gamba—I’m not making this up, you know!). The guest artist was Richard Kolb, playing the theorbo. 

Pop quiz. Raise your hand if you remember what a theorbo is. I know I’ve mentioned it two or three times in the past. Ask, if you need a reminder.

There were fifteen pieces on the program, so I’m not listing all fifteen, just as I’m not listing all twelve vocalists—we’d be here all day. Re. the Battle of the Sexes, there was no real battle. But there were female composers. Early music female composers. Let that sink in. Maddalena Casulana (ca.1540–ca.1590); Claudia Francesca Rusca (1593–1676)—but you’re not here for a history lesson, right? 

All of the music was sung beautifully. The theorbo added a bit of a continuo (accompaniment) feel, as did the recorders and viola da gamba, though they were more often used as intervals between the sung portions of some of the pieces. 

The printed program ran to eight pages because it included texts/translations for all fifteen pieces. I will also not include them all here, but I will include one. Fammi una canzonetta capriciosa. This was vocals with theorbo accompaniment. Here’s the translation: 

  Write me a capricious little song,
  such that no one, or only few,
  are able to sing it,
  and to a danceable tune.

  Don’t mind tuning or rules,
  for this is the best you can do.

  Do it as your fancy offers it,
  and embellish it by pretty runs. 

How cool is that? Capricious, indeed! 

Some of the pieces were calm, while some were more energetic. Some were strophic—verse, verse, verse. Some were for two voices, while some were for five. This is slightly misleading because a piece for five voices and a piece for two voices merely meant the number of vocal lines. All twelve vocalists sang all of the pieces, except for when they were playing recorder or viola da gamba. In a nod to early music gender fluidity, one piece (Magi videntes stellam, by Agostino Agarazzi (1580–1642)) was written for three tenor voices. Obviously, it was sung here by sopranos and altos. And it worked just fine. 

All in all, this was a wonderful reintroduction to this enjoyable series of concerts. I look forward to the rest of winter and to the spring, as well.

ConcertMeister