The Baltimore Consort (1/9/25)

The Food of Love: Songs, Dances & Fancies for Shakespeare

Mary Anne Ballard ~ treble & bass viols; Mark Cudek ~ cittern; Larry Lipkis ~ bass viol, recorder, crumhorn & gemshorn; Ronn McFarlane ~ lute; Mindy Rosenfeld ~ flutes, fifes, bagpipes & crumhorn; Danielle Svonanvec ~ soprano

Happy New Year from the Gotham Early Music Scene concerts. They had one on January 2 that I did not attend—better late than never, eh?

With sixteen pieces (most composed in the very late 1500s) on the program, you're only getting highlights. Nine plays were represented: As You Like It (two pieces); Twelfth Night (three); Romeo and Juliet (two); Henry IV, Part II & A Winter's Tale (two); The Tempest (three); Merry Wives of Windsor & Othello (two); and Midsummer Night's Dream (two). Quite a full plate.

Are some instruments new to you? Me, too. The cittern is a plucked string instrument with a flat back;  therefore it's a little sturdier and easier to construct and transport than the rounded-back lute. The viols are precursors to cellos. Fifes and bagpipes are fairly self-explanatory. Your assignment is to seek out the gemshorn and the crumhorns. Class dismissed.

On to the music. This well-curated program flowed beautifully. Instrumental pieces segued very nicely into the vocal pieces associated with them. Even with the array of instruments, most of the pieces were mild to gentle, though there were some livelier dance-like works. Some were pieces that might have been a part of the aforementioned plays, while others were lyrics that Shakespeare himself wrote. Those included It Was a Lover and His Lass, O Mistresse Mine, Where the Bee Sucks (composed by Robert Johnson), Full Fathom Five (also R. Johnson), and Willow Song.

Others that might have been included, perhaps as incidental music, were Greensleeves, and two broadside ballads – slightly longer works – Complain My Lute, and The Carman's Whistle. The soprano acquitted herself quite well throughout but outdid herself in the final work on the program – The Mad, Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow. She had changed from her earlier pretty dress into a pair of trousers, a shirt, and a hooded cape. She used props (a drape) and humor (a withering glare at the bagpiper) to very good comic effect. Robin Goodfellow is also known as Puck, so you can see why humor was involved.

Preceding the final work was Fairie Rownde, from Pavanes, Galliards, and Alamains (1599) (composed by Antony Holborn). It was lively and playful, as fairies should be!

Happy new year, indeed, from many years ago.

ConcertMeister