Final concerts for annual music festivals are often the platform to celebrate the unseen workers and all the benefits – excellence and accessibility to live music in regional venues, diverse and broad community connections being established – with public acknowledgement and recognition going to founding donors and musical directors in particular. Latitude 37 fittingly was programmed to close this year’s Festival, as this ensemble’s violinist, Julia Fredersdorff, had held the reins as Artistic Director for 11 years following the Festival’s initiation in 2008. Also most highly welcomed was Charles Kiefel AM, a foundation donor and sponsor and supporter for today’s event.
The historic Renton organ in the beautiful St John’s Church fittingly opened the musical menu, with Donald Nicolson performing a warm and welcoming character piece by French Baroque organist and composer Jean Francois D’Andrieu. Sadly, the organ is almost fully hidden behind a proscenium arch so the audience does miss the wondrous sight and the pianissimo tones of a concert performance. Toccata-like sections established a light-hearted and uplifting atmosphere, with the daylight and sunshine through both modern and historic stained-glass windows perhaps counteracting any desired candlelit atmosphere.
Latitude 37 is widely renowned for its diverse range of programs, and as a trio that excels in combining flair, personality and diverse artistic and “historically informed” performances.
Donald Nicolson (now centrally staged on harpsichord), Julie Fredersdorff (violin), and Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba and treble viol – but sadly today no baryton!) are a truly attractive ensemble. Couperin’s Troisième Concert from Concert Royaux was most elegant in its opening Andante and lively in its Dance movements, but, as these suites were intended for listening rather than dancing, perhaps the more powerful continuo became too busy with much ornamentation and dense hurried texture at times. Most pleasant was a contrasting Musette, with percussive “bass” drones bringing an uplifting feeling when verses shifted from minor to a lilting major key, adding an elegant simplicity to this earthy Baroque “folk music”. Nicolson introduced the next most hauntingly evocative and best-known work by Marin Marais (1723), Sonnerie de Saint Geneviève du Mont de Paris (The Bells of St Genevieve). He described his continuo part, which doubled with the da gamba’s repeated bass line, as being like a three-note tambourin part – The Triangle of Sadness. There were delightful variations in the timbre of the violin’s soaring melody and freely moving line as Fredersdorff soared nicely above the centrepiece – Vaughan’s skilful and evocative da gamba ostinato. Beautifully mesmerising.
The central theme of Baroque composition designed over the Ground Bass continued surprisingly with a contemporary piece by Sydney composer Brook Green, titled “Phoenix Chaconne”. Ensemble members shared their humorous pseudonym: “The Demented Phoenix Chaconne”. Certainly the repeated ground bass was there with contemporary colours from all instruments, and one felt the imaginary dancers first keeping the pulse, but gradually in the mist of time and regeneration, they joined the aging Phoenix and wandered off course, perhaps gently and gracefully, then slipping over and retiring early. This seemed an unusual way to lead into Interval. The summer evening’s audience enjoyed locally produced refreshments, and could also listen to Nicolson sounding out the church organ one more time as listeners were “called back”.
From Laura Vaughan’s treasure trove of historic string instruments, she chose the treble viol to team with Fredersdorff’s violin for a beautifully orchestrated duo by J.P. Guignon, Nouvelles Variations de diverse Airs et les folies d’Espagne Op. 9. Visually and aurally, this was irresistible as a very experienced and intuitive partnership was shown. Delightful and “authentic”, a most expressive and wide range of dynamics and exotic flavours was appreciated.
In this program of surprises, Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes No. 3 was given an unusual setting by the trio, which produced a certain timelessness but was perhaps experimental and not fully convincing with this instrumentation. New and different, but having a sense of fragility without the familiar keyboard resonance we expect in Satie’s music.
French composer and viol player Jacques Morel (1700-1749) was the final French composer on today’s menu. The skills of all members of Latitude 37 were highlighted in a regal and elegant portrayal of music for dancing or listening in the French Court.
Sydney composer Alice Chance studied in France, and describes her music as “often having a playful edge”. Given the chance to hold a meteorite in her hand, she reflected on the crystals in the piece of “old rock” that inspired her to compose the last work today: Old Ground. Pun intended of course, the work began with a slow, descending firm melodic line on the da gamba, was joined by punctuation and strummed patterns on violin and continuo, with minimal elements and colourful harmonic repeated patterns. In an unusual festival ending, the atmosphere changed with a surprisingly gentle close, as fragments of the old ground descended, diminished and dissolved.
Photo supplied.
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Julie McErlain reviewed “Baroque by Candlelight – Latitude 37”, presented as part of the Peninsula Summer Music Festival at St John’s Anglican Church, Flinders, on January 10, 2025.
