Love. Sex. Death: Music To Die For

This provocatively named concert was Ludovico’s Band’s last in the Local Heroes series for 2014, and incorporated well-established favourites of the early music canon of the 17^th century, says guest writer Dr Carol J Williams who attended the performance on September 23 at the Melbourne Recital Centre Salon …

While it is a clever move to please rather than challenge what is probably the cream of Melbourne’s early music audience there is always the risk that the performances will be compared, whether favourably or not, to specific favourite performances. By the intensity of the final ovation and applause throughout, I think this was a risk that paid off.

Three items from Monteverdi’s opera L’incoronazione di Poppea were presented in reverse dramatic order, so that “Pur ti miro”, the duet that follows the coronation of Poppea, at the end of the opera, opened for SEX in this concert, following the elegant introductory chaconne from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. The next category, DEATH, featured the opera’s act III “A dio Roma” as Octavia, Nero’s spurned wife, abandoned to exile and certain death, farewells Rome, and finally the category LOVE included the opera’s Act I “Disprezzata regina” as Octavia is overwhelmed by the turbulent emotions of rage and self-pity at Poppea’s usurping her rightful place in Nero’s bed.

The contralto Liane Keegan (pictured) took the role of Octavia in these two dramatic monologues and was able to convincingly project the hopeless sorrow of the first and the rage of the second; I can only speculate on how much better it would have been if she had been able to inhabit Octavia without the score for reference. These recitatives are hard work for both performer and audience as there are no easy tunes, no dazzling vocal pyrotechnics to entertain and I think we might have actually seen Octavia if the score was not standing between performer and audience.

That Keegan has the vocal skills is abundantly clear, that she also has considerable dramatic power was demonstrated by her final performance as Dido in the famous lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. For this number Liane Keegan directly engaged with the audience without the barrier of the score so we were both captured by the abstract beauty of this womanly voice as well as convinced that Dido, unable to face life without her lover Aeneas, was preparing for her own death. The final aching moment of this lament was cleverly sustained by the seamless move to the final Chaconne in g minor, also by Purcell, letting the audience down gently. “Pur ti miro” the concert’s opening duet between Nero (Maximilian Riebl), his wife exiled and abandoned to her death, and Poppea, (Liane Keegan), her husband dead and the entire Roman empire lying before them both was beautifully performed but was ultimately not as satisfying as it might have been.

The work is a miracle of musical economy, constructed largely over a 4 note bass ostinato with the two voices in the same range sharing pretty much identical musical material as they clamber over each other and wind their melodies around each other in the search for musical union. Rapport between the two singers is essential if this famous duet is to work and on this occasion it was completely lacking. We have come to expect more than simply wonderful performances, though I imagine this would have worked well in the recording studio. The other duet on the programme, the lighthearted “Di questo giorno al sol” from Orfeo ed Euridice by Fux was delivered by both singers with beguiling simplicity and charm.

The countertenor, Maximilian Riebl’s first solo was in Buxtehude’s strophic song best known as Klaglied and composed on the occasion of his father’s death. The vocal range is almost 2 octaves and the gently descending, sustained line is reliant on the natural beauty of the voice. Riebl’s interpretation was solemnly direct, and with due regard to the weight of the lyric, avoided all ornamentation. He took a similar approach with Dowland’s famous lute ayre, Flow my tears, which showcased the considerable beauty of Riebl’s virile counter-tenor sound. This work with the opening melodic phrase which came to represent falling tears in later works as a figure of musical speech, cries out for some form of elaboration or variation as it is essentially in the form of a pavane over a repeated bass line.

Perhaps vocal embellishment was avoided here, to allow the following work, Jakob van Eyck’s Pavaen Lachrimae, based on the Dowland original, to shine out with its intricate web of roulades and rapid passage work, handled masterfully by Ruth Wilkinson on recorder. Maximilian Riebl’s final solo was “Pianta bella” from Albinoni’s Il nascimento de l’Aurora, a festa pastorale rather than full-blown opera. This aria has become something of a set piece in the high male voice category over the last few years but this performance with the glistening vocal line decorated with beautiful string filigree work largely by Rachael Beesley was by far the best of the versions I have heard recently.

The instrumental ensemble work was brilliantly and subtly coordinated by the band’s leader, Marshall McGuire at the triple harp with support from the other side of the stage from Rachael Beesley on violin. There was one brief tuning moment which McGuire explained as essential when there are 243 strings on stage. Perhaps he was joking, but he wouldn’t have been far off the mark with 2 violins, viola, viola da gamba, 2 triple harps (the other played by rising young star of early harps, Hannah Lane), two theorbos, a lute and a guitar all present.

Editor’s note: Dr Carol J. Williams is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University, Clayton Campus.