![]() ![]() ![]() ⚫ Reclaiming Handel's first thoughts: Peter Whelan directs Irish Baroque Orchestra in the Dublin version of Messiah ⚫ Imaginative programme & unusual repertoire: The Fourth Choir's The Only Planet at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ⚫ The sheer sense of engagement from the young choral singers was a joy: Bach's St Matthew Passion from Choir of King's College, London at St John's Smith Square ⚫ A tale of two passions: Sebastiani's St Matthew Passion at Wigmore Hall and Bach's St John Passion at St Martin in the Fields ⚫ A joyous Easter celebration: Florilegium in Bach's Easter Oratorios at Wigmore Hall ![]() ⚫ A festival of youthful music making: National Youth Orchestra on cracking form for their immersive NYO Ignite programme But this was invigorating stuff and an eloquent evening s entertainment. I like my passion a little rougher around the edges and wished that they had loosened their stays as they did to such effect in the comic interludes Iro’s “O dolor” and “Chi va li” when Poppea’s guards gossip about their master’s affairs. With sensuous voices of milk and honey Anders Dahlin and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro were at times achingly beautiful. It all seemed a little too restrained and poised. I was less convinced by “Zefiro Torna”, from the ninth book of madrigals, an ode to Zephyr that ushers in the spring and it’s concomitant joys. In the opera excerpts from Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea we saw a move towards a more flexible and realistic theatrical style, dramma per musica the vivid word painting a far cry from dry declamation. The cry of “mai” (never) in “O sia tranquillo il mare” made my hair stand on end. The delicate madrigals “Chiome d’oro and “O come sei gentile” from book seven are pictures of beauty and restraint whilst in contrast those from book eight “Guerrieri e amorosi “ are agitated and intense. This is a style far removed from the formalism and artifice that preceded it. This beguiling and illuminating concert illustrated just how innovative Monteverdi could be. John’s Smith Square featured Les Talens Lyriques, conductor Christophe Rousse and tenors Anders J Dahlin and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, in a diverse programme of madrigals and excerpts from Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea highlighting Monteverdi’s contribution to a less formal and naturalistic musical language using an expanded musical vocabulary reflecting character and emotion "to affect the soul". Wednesday night’s concert (7 June 2017), Zefiro torna, at St. Zefiro torna, Monteverdi madrigals & opera excerpts Les Talens Lyriques St John's Smith SquareĪ beguiling and illuminating concert illustrating the innovative nature of Monteverdi's music Anders J Dahlin and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro ![]()
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