by John Davison as published in the IAWM Journal, October 1995, pp. 49.
A most unusual and beautiful concert took place May 21, 1995, at St. John's Episcopal Church, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Hildegard Chamber Players (Sylvia Glickman, Artistic Director), it was performed by singers from the group Pomerium (Alexander Blachly, director), plus Mary Ann Ballard, viol and rebec, and Webb Wiggins, harpsichord and organ. It consisted of the music of thirteen women composers who were active from the mid-ninth to the late seventeenth century. Of these, Hildegard of Bingen is well know both for her music and her literary and political activity; Margaret of Austria is known for her wise rule of the Netherlands; and Francesca and Settimia Caccini were the daughters of the well-known Giulio, who helped start opera in its modern form. Other composers on the program included Kassia of Constantinople; La Comtessa de Dia (in the troubadour tradition); the professional Madalena Casulana; and the 16th and 17th century nuns, Vittoria Aleotti, Sulpitia Cesis, Lucretia Vizzana, Caterina Assandra, Isabella Leonarda, and Rosa Badalla. The helpful notes assembled by Martha Furman Schleifer gave a generally melancholy picture of the last five talented women; allowed an early bloom - a publication - and then somehow silenced by the stresses of convent life. All their music shows a sophistication in the styles of their respective periods and can hold its own, as can all the music on this program, with any music one generally hears from the eras represented.
I found the following to be especially engaging and striking; Kassia's splendid melodies growing out of the Byzantine chant tradition (with nicely arranged, drone like background); Cesis' soaring Stabat Mater; Badalla's varied-textured cantata; Vizzana's short, lovely song; and Leonarda's bold martial image of the soul as female warrior. Notable, too, was the long Monteverdiesque duet by Casulana with the outrageously extravagant Baroque blood-and-milk imagery of the text.
The performances were outstanding. Sopranos Amanda Balestrieri and Michele Eaton had different but beautifully complementary voices. Neil Farrell, tenor, Alexander Blachly, baritone, and Kurt-Owen Richards, bass, sang well as they stepped forward to vary the all-upper-register texture of most of the music. The arrangement of the twenty pieces on the program was carefully planned to assure a continual variety of textures. The relative lack of vocal vibrato gave a welcome period authenticity, as did the unobtrusively supportive keyboard work of Webb Wiggins and the fine playing of the early stringed instruments by Mary Ann Ballard. The large audience clearly enjoyed the concert thoroughly.
John Davison is the Ruth Marshall Magill Professor of Music at Haverford College.