This strong presentation of Rossini’s Mass, the second performance of the work in Melbourne in under a month, was the result of a self-evidently fruitful collaboration between two of Melbourne’s most productive and innovative vocal ensembles. Michael Fulcher, the founder of one of them (Polyphonic Voices), directed the performance in the Chapel of Trinity College.
While not quite mainstream repertoire, Rossini’s Mass is without doubt a serious and musically self-assured (as well as technically challenging) work. As many have observed before, it is also neither very petite nor especially solennelle. Was Rossini nevertheless playing with audience expectations? In some ways he’d been doing that for all of the 34-year hiatus leading up to its composition. For, just when he was at the apex of his fame with a triumphant season of performances of William Tell at the Paris Opéra in 1829, Rossini had chosen to retire. Of course, his many years of brilliant success across Europe meant that he could now afford to. But Rossini was also bothered by changing fashions in singing, especially the growing influence of the rising German school of opera. At heart, he remained a bel canto classicist.
So instead of penning more operatic hits, he retreated to his homes in Bologna and Paris and became the feted host of legendary musical soirees. Sure, he continued to compose, but now largely for, and at, his own pleasure – the result being his so-called Péchés de vieillesse:”Sins of Old Age”. Conspicuously, they did not include any new operas.
That being said, the Petite messe solennelle, written in 1863, at times gets pretty close to imitating one. There are solos, duets, trios, quartets, and choruses, and the solo music in particular unmistakably draws on his mature operatic style.
Yet Rossini also made a significant effort to honour both the form and function of a traditional mass setting. The forces he originally employed, in turn, speak more to the practicalities of liturgical, or even private, performance than to the pretentions of the operatic stage. Here Songmakers Australia and Polyphonic Voices closely followed the composer’s stipulation at the time of its first performance for a choir of 12 adult voices accompanied by two pianos and a harmonium (only later did the work appear in a version for full orchestra and large choir).
The biggest departure from Rossini’s wishes was the absence here of a second piano (which serves as a kind of ripieno), but this is not an uncommon alteration today – no doubt for reasons of practicality. The harmonium provided for the occasion, however, was a very fine instrument and was sympathetically deployed by Donald Nicholson, not least as a solo instrument in the marvellous “Prélude religieux”. Songmakers Australia pianist Andrea Katz likewise delivered the sole piano accompaniment with surety and refinement.
The four vocal soloists were also from Songmakers Australia: Merlyn Quaife (soprano), Christine Wilson (mezzo-soprano), and Nicholas Dinopoulos (bass), here joined by guest artist Chris Watson (tenor); Watson is more commonly to be found in Trinity College Chapel directing its terrific choir. All four acquitted themselves well; standout solo performances were Watson’s confident, lyrical “Domine Deus” and Quaife’s powerful “O Salutaris Hostia” (the setting of the Eucharistic hymn that Rossini places between the Sanctus and Agnus Dei of the Mass).
The extensive choruses, which include several extended fugues, were in turn also securely and sensitively delivered by the twelve members of Polyphonic Voices, even if at times I wished for a stronger soprano line to help foreground some of Rossini’s glorious melodies. As an otherwise balanced and carefully blended ensemble, however, they were especially well-suited (and impressive) in their delivery of the unaccompanied “Christie Eleison”, a lovely stile antico interlude that Rossini in fact “stole” from a mass by his friend Louis Niedermeyer (as an apparent act of homage). Similarly, their antiphonal responses to Christine Wilson’s prayerful appeals in the Agnus Dei were very beautiful indeed, all helped by Fulcher’s evident attention to dynamic contrast and clear ensemble articulation throughout.
I was less sure about whether Trinity Chapel, as beautiful and serene as it is, was the most ideal setting, however. Its generous reverb tended to obscure some of the detail of the work’s finely-wrought counterpoint as well as diminish the “punch through” of the lower register of the soloists. If petite is to be taken literally, I suspect it is Rossini pointing to this work’s connection to principles and practices of chamber music. The lack of a second piano, as well as the decision to mix the male and female chorister sections, similarly downplayed any latent “stereophonic” (as one might anachronistically put it) effects.
But these are only minor quibbles. All performers are, in the end, to be congratulated for giving Melbourne audiences another chance to hear this terrific work, and for doing so with evident care and style.
Image supplied.
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Peter Tregear reviewed the performance of Rossini’s “Petite messe solennelle”, performed by Songmakers Australia and Polyphonic Voices at Trinity College Chapel on October 12, 2024
