Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
July 15, 2014
by Michael J. Moran
A combination of threatening weather and esoteric repertoire
may have limited attendance at Sequentia’s recent Tanglewood engagement, but
the modest audience that braved the elements was treated to a rare excursion
into unfamiliar musical terrain.
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| Sequentia |
Founded in 1977 by Benjamin Bagby and the late Barbara
Thornton, Sequentia is one of the world’s foremost ensembles specializing in
medieval music. Their many recordings and concert tours have renewed interest
in and inspired further research into this rich musical genre. Their Tanglewood
program featured music from the Carolingian era, the two centuries following
Charlemagne’s coronation as “Holy Roman Emperor” in 800.
The thirteen pieces on the program included two instrumental
selections, but most were Latin texts sung by one or two voices, with English
translations projected from the back of the stage. Though many had unknown
authors, several were written by Charlemagne’s court poet, Angilbertus. Their
subject matter ranged from praise for the king to a fight between two warriors
to the very different plights of two women facing death.
The performances by Bagby on voice and harp, Norbert
Rodenkirchen on flutes and cithara (a kind of lyre), and vocalist Wolodymyr
Smishkewych were dramatic and colorful. Bagby delivered the German text of “The
Song of Hildebrand,” about a long lost hero whose son, Hadubrand, doesn’t know
him when they meet in battle, with urgency and forceful diction. Smishkewych
used his sweeter voice to poignant effect in the “Canticle of Eulalia,” a
harrowing tale, in old French, of a beautiful young woman’s martyrdom. The
virtuosic Rodenkirchen played with consistent beauty and purity of tone no
matter how often he switched among his exotic-sounding instruments.
The concentration of the program into 90 minutes without an
intermission and the closing of Ozawa Hall’s rear wall to keep a raging
thunderstorm from drowning out the music made this an unusually intimate
journey into the past. The enthralled audience called the performers back to
the stage several times before the concert hall doors opened to reveal that the
music had driven the storm away.
