The University of Connecticut Collegium Musicum held a performance titled “Journeys Home: An Evening of Readings and Music” at von der Mehden Recital Hall on Friday, April 11.
It contained several readings from poems and pieces of church music from European composers. Dr. Ellen Gilson Voth, the artistic director of the Farmington Valley Chorale, served as guest conductor. On stage with her were 22 singers and seven instrumentalists.
Once all the singers and instrumentalists were on stage, Voth gave a short speech to give thanks to members of the Collegium Musicum and to von der Mehden for hosting the performance. She also gave a quick overview of all the pieces that would be performed. The main throughline of all these pieces is the aforementioned “journey home,” and transitioning from an old environment to a new one.
The first piece performed was a reading from “Oku no Hosomichi,” written by Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō. This work of haibun, a Japanese poetic form that combines prose and haiku, details Bashō’s accounts of his travels through Edo-period Japan.
Next up was a performance of “Super flumina Babylonis,” composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a famous Italian composer in the late 16th century. The lyrics are the first verse of Psalm 137.
One interesting thing about this performance was that Voth was directing four distinct groups of singing voices — the Latin names for these singing voices being cantus, altus, tenor and bassus — and they’d sing the psalm at different paces.
This made it disorienting to follow, but on the other hand, it gave people in the audience different groups of voices to focus on. Plus, they each brought their own spin, emphasizing different syllables and singing in different registers.
Next up was another performance of “Super flumina Babylonis,” but the version composed by Orlande de Lassus, another famous 16th-century composer. One marked difference from both pieces is that the higher register voices, the cantus and altus, dominate the space a lot more, compared to the previous piece where the bassus voices carry the whole psalm. In this rendition, it’s the tenor voices that start off the piece, compared to Palestrina’s piece, where the bassus voices start it off.
After two successive renditions of “Super flumina Babylonis,” all the singers eventually disembarked from the stage. Voth stepped off the stand and took her place on the harpsichord, as she and baroque oboe player Adam Rizzo performed “Sonata in B-flat Major” by George Frideric Handel.
This performance is mostly a solo oboe piece, as Voth provided a backing melody for Rizzo to play. The harpsichord provided a lovely texture to the piece. It transported me right back to Handel’s time. Rizzo’s oboe playing was stellar, capped off by a lovely flourish at the end.
Another solo performance came after, as Voth and celloist Luigi Polcari performed “Prelude, from Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Polcari’s cello playing is amazing. His playing was punctuated by periods of high-energy playing and stagnation, as he drew out every note to give a somber mood. Polcari ended this with some harsh dissonant notes: an unsettling end to a great performance.
After a host of musical performances, we get to the second reading of the night, “Farewell,” a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali polymath considered the greatest writer of modern Indian literature. Fun fact: Bengali New Year’s is in two days’ time! Tagore’s poem recounts a man bidding farewell to his old home and embarking on a new journey.
However, the highlight of the night was the performance of “Filius prodigus” by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a famous French composer in the 17th century. The longest performance of the night, the lyrics detail the Parable of the Prodigal Son. At the beginning, the mood was quite mellow as soloist Christopher Gallerani introduces the story of the prodigal son to the audience, harpsichord and cello in tow.
One great aspect of all the vocal performances by these soloists is the melismatic runs they can go on. Adding extra emotion to the lines and transforming it from church choir music into an operatic performance of sorts. This is the first time vocal performances are backed by instruments during the night, they sit in the background to let the vocal performances stand out.
The best part of “Filius prodigus” was when violinists Krystian Pawlowski and Antonio Avilés Figueroa participated in a call and response with all of the singers, as they responded with upbeat, high tempo playing during the middle section to some lyrics. It immediately lifted the mood up and brought a sense of Christmas cheer into the building.
After the longest performance of the night, we have our third and final reading, “They Desire a Better Country,” by Christina Rossetti, a Victorian era writer. The poem comprises three stanzas in sonnet form, about the narrator’s past, present and future.
The final performance of the night was “O How Amiable are Thy Dwellings” by English composer Thomas Weelkes. This piece shares a lot of similarities with “Super flumina Babylonis.” Both have lyrics derived from psalms and have four different groups of singers take on the psalm at their own pace and in their own respective ways.
Once “O How Amiable are Thy Dwellings” concluded, everyone bowed to the audience three separate times as the audience broke into rapturous applause over a stellar performance from the UConn Collegium Musicum. Despite the torrid weather outside von der Mehden, we were able to find solace with the performance they put on that night.