A Quick Note on La Stella

Sunday at 3 pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Portland, the La Stella early music ensemble gave their first of hopefully many performances to come. I did not take notes at the concert, so this is just a quick heads-up about a promising new group.

La Stella consists of five performers:

Mary Rowell--violin
Zoe Tokar, alto recorder and voice flute
Owen Daly, harpsichord (playing an instrument of his own crafting)
Hideki Yamaya, theorbo and baroque guitar
Max Fuller, viola da gamba and baroque cello

They are all experienced Baroque musicians, and the depth of their expertise showed. The program consisted of very difficult works that required sincere scholasticism and excellent technique. While not quite flawless, as a serious early music fan this concert was one of the most satisfying meals I have had in some time.

In addition to trio sonatas for various combinations by Bach and Telemann, they delved into the early and middle Baroque repertoire for works by composers who are not heard as often, such as Giovanni Pandolfi (1620-1669) and Carlo Farina (1600-1640). Fuller played Marin Marais' langorous homage to his mysterious master, the famous Tombeau pour M'sieur de Sainte-Colombe for viola da gamba, . Yamaya presented two toccatas and a corrente for solo chitarrone (theorbo) by Alessandro Piccinini (1566-1638), and in the final 'Paris Quartet' by Telemann all five musicians played, with Yamaya joining the continuo on baroque guitar.

I'm not sure that there are any other small chamber ensembles in Portland who regularly play this type of music at this level, so I strongly hope that La Stella continues in this vein and receives the support that musicians like this so richly deserve from the PDX early music community. They do not have a website yet, but La Stella does have a Facebook page for those interested in learning more about the group or the performers.

NOTE: This is cross-posted ad Northwest Reverb.

CD Review up at Suite101, my new writing gig

I have recently been accepted to write articles at Suite101, a sort of general interest website. If I play my cards right, I might actually make a little money there, so zippadeedoodah for that! I'm going to link Suite101 over to the side of my blog here, but if you'd like to read the review, check it out here. (Hint: if you click on the ads next to my article, that's how I get paid. ;0)

Cappella Romana Review up at NW Reverb

I attended a marvelous concert by Capella Romana, a Portland-based ancient music choir. The review is up here at NW Reverb.

William Byrd Fest Concert Review at NW Reverb

I attended the book-end concerts of the William Byrd Fest and reviewed them at NW Reverb; you can read the review of the final concert here if you'd like.

Review of William Byrd Festival at NW Reverb

I attended a spectacular display of keyboard brilliance at the opening of the William Byrd Festival last night, and wrote a review of it here at NW Reverb.

Updates...

I'm kind of late in posting this, but I heard yet another wonderful performance by In Mulieribus on Sunday, June 8th. You can read that review on Northwest Reverb. I purchased their inaugural cd, Notre Dame de Grace and plan to review that here at Musical Oozings soon. Keep your eye open at Northwest Reverb this winter for a multi-media project that Anna Song and I are planning, which will present photos and audio clips of In Mulieribus performing live.

Also, James Bash is currently at the annual convention of the Music Critics Association of North America in Denver and is publishing regular updates and reviews also at NWR. Interesting reading there.

Interview with Anna Song at Northwest Reverb

Last year, in the midst of the Christmas concert season when I was mind-numbingly busy preparing for the PSC's Wintersong concert as well as the BCC's Christmas Oratorio concert, I decided I really wanted to hear some choral music that wasn't coming out of my own mouth. I'd heard a lot of buzz about In Mulieribus, thanks in part to the strong reception of their first CD, Notre Dame de Grace (which I still haven't bought yet, but I plan to remedy that on Sunday) so I decided to go hear their concert. I'm a huge fan of ancient music, but I'd never heard this kind of music performed live with such flawless, haunting intensity in my entire life. It's incredible to hear music that's a thousand years old presented with such consummate skill and passion that it sounds as fresh and exciting as it must have when it was new. I attend dozens and dozens of concerts every year, and the In Mulieribus concert certainly ranks as one of the top one or two that I heard last year.

I think, being a performer as well as a reviewer, that I tend to gush too much at times when reviewing. Part of that stems from the fact that since I do perform, I can attend a concert that is horrible (fortunately those are very few and far between) and I still appreciate the hard work that goes into it. It's something I need to work on; separating my innate sympathy with the performers from a (hopefully) objective analysis of the performance. But another part of it is that music still infects me like Pixie dust, it's something that can tear me out from my oft incredibly jaded weltanschaauung and fill me with a joie de vivre (how's that for dropping two foreign phrases in one sentence?) in a way that almost nothing else can. At least, music unlocks that sense of wonder in me far more readily than anything else I can think of.

The point of all this rambling being, although I tend to love most of the music I go to hear, In Mulieribus presents amazing music at a skill level that is a true rarity. Anyone who loves or is remotely curious about ancient music should make an effort to hear them. Not to mention that a portion of the proceeds from each concert goes to charity.

I got to interview artistic director Anna Song, and she shed quite a bit of light on their upcoming concert at Northwest Reverb. 'Nuf said; read what Anna has to say, and I hope to see you at the concert Sunday. Get there early if you don't already have tickets; this one may sell out.