...the Palestrina "Magnificat" setting...were among the high points of the evening. Joan Reinthaler, Washington Post, January 2008 ...the ensemble ... -- early music for high voices -- is worth exploring in depth. Joan Reinthaler, Washington Post, January 2008 |
| REVIEWS |
| 2007/2008 |
| REVIEWS FOR THE CD |
| Spell-binding, transcendent Music to make one swoon. Spell-binding harmonies, impeccable choral blend and balance, transcendent melodic line, sensitive and intelligent expression. A real treat! Deborah Bays FABULOUS and we have been playing it non stop! The CD is FABULOUS and we have been playing it non stop. It has been wonderful to listen to especially while driving. The voices blend so well!! The CD was definitely worth waiting for!!! Chris Kruszewski & family |
Our CD is also available for purchase as individual tracks only.
Please come to our recording/tracks only page.
Please come to our recording/tracks only page.
| The program for tonight’s concert was picked with skill... The Countertop Quartet (which tonight was seldom only a quartet, as like an accordion it grew or shrank in size, sometimes diminishing to a duet or trio or occasionally expanding to a septet) manages to achieve the sonority of a much larger choral group, a tribute to the professional confidence of singers who possess accurate voices. Sopranos Rachel Barham and Ellen Kliman and mezzo- soprano Naomi Pomerantz were consistently outstanding... The Countertop Quartet seems to understand that entertaining an audience is the essence of a successful concert. Stephen Neal Dennis, www.allartsreview4u.com, June 2008 |
| 2008/2009 |
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Countertop: Baroque With Added Depth
Monday, October 6, 2008; Page C04
The Countertop Quartet has added a mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a
bass to its original two-soprano, two-countertenor makeup and recast
itself as the Countertop Ensemble. This was a good move. They joined
forces with the Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble on Saturday
at the Universalist National Memorial Church near Dupont Circle for a
program of Venetian music of the early baroque period that was
delivered with serious attention to detail.
Director Chris Dudley (one of the countertenors, who conducts as he
sings) has collected a group of eight fine singers who blend and
balance beautifully and who understand the idiom. In intricate madrigal
and motet settings by both Andrea (the uncle) and Giovanni (the
nephew) Gabrieli, Adriano Willaert and Heinrich Schuetz, they sang
with an easy, straight delivery that kept textures transparent and lines
nicely shaped. It was only in the highly elaborate rhythmic modulations
of a couple of the madrigals that a firmer hand on the conducting tiller
might have kept things smoother.
the modern cornet. Dating from the 15th century, it is slightly bent,
usually made of wood with finger holes like a recorder's and a
mouthpiece a little like a trumpet's. Played well (as it was, here, by
Stanley Curtis) it sounds like an exceptionally clear human voice.
Sackbuts (early trombones) also sound lighter and more human than
their modern version, and there were times in this concert when the
two ensembles complemented each other well. Too often, however,
particularly in the Schuetz "Veni Dilecte" for four low voices and
sackbuts, the singers ended up wallowing in the instrumental sound.
-- Joan Reinthaler
Monday, October 6, 2008; Page C04
The Countertop Quartet has added a mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a
bass to its original two-soprano, two-countertenor makeup and recast
itself as the Countertop Ensemble. This was a good move. They joined
forces with the Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble on Saturday
at the Universalist National Memorial Church near Dupont Circle for a
program of Venetian music of the early baroque period that was
delivered with serious attention to detail.
Director Chris Dudley (one of the countertenors, who conducts as he
sings) has collected a group of eight fine singers who blend and
balance beautifully and who understand the idiom. In intricate madrigal
and motet settings by both Andrea (the uncle) and Giovanni (the
nephew) Gabrieli, Adriano Willaert and Heinrich Schuetz, they sang
with an easy, straight delivery that kept textures transparent and lines
nicely shaped. It was only in the highly elaborate rhythmic modulations
of a couple of the madrigals that a firmer hand on the conducting tiller
might have kept things smoother.
the modern cornet. Dating from the 15th century, it is slightly bent,
usually made of wood with finger holes like a recorder's and a
mouthpiece a little like a trumpet's. Played well (as it was, here, by
Stanley Curtis) it sounds like an exceptionally clear human voice.
Sackbuts (early trombones) also sound lighter and more human than
their modern version, and there were times in this concert when the
two ensembles complemented each other well. Too often, however,
particularly in the Schuetz "Veni Dilecte" for four low voices and
sackbuts, the singers ended up wallowing in the instrumental sound.
-- Joan Reinthaler
| 2009/2010 |
Monday, July 20, 2009; Online
DC's Early-Music Groups Join to Pass the Hat
by Charles T. Downey
The Washington Early Music Festival is doing its best to endure
uncertain financial times. To raise money for the 2010 festival (which
will focus on France), seven groups and one soloist donated their
talents for a gala benefit concert Saturday night at St. Mark's Episcopal
Church on Capitol Hill, a hodgepodge that was entertaining, often lovely
but overall unspectacular.
(read more after the jump)
Among the vocal selections, the Countertop Consort gave the most
consistently beautiful performance, with eight voices evenly balanced in
a section of Tallis's "Lamentations." The Hebrew letters before each
verse, likely because of their exotic inscrutability, inspired the
composer to create some of his most mysterious and imaginative music
-- rendered here as luscious vocalises, unfurled like the whorls of a
manuscript's elegantly illuminated capital letters.
-- Charles T. Downey
DC's Early-Music Groups Join to Pass the Hat
by Charles T. Downey
The Washington Early Music Festival is doing its best to endure
uncertain financial times. To raise money for the 2010 festival (which
will focus on France), seven groups and one soloist donated their
talents for a gala benefit concert Saturday night at St. Mark's Episcopal
Church on Capitol Hill, a hodgepodge that was entertaining, often lovely
but overall unspectacular.
(read more after the jump)
Among the vocal selections, the Countertop Consort gave the most
consistently beautiful performance, with eight voices evenly balanced in
a section of Tallis's "Lamentations." The Hebrew letters before each
verse, likely because of their exotic inscrutability, inspired the
composer to create some of his most mysterious and imaginative music
-- rendered here as luscious vocalises, unfurled like the whorls of a
manuscript's elegantly illuminated capital letters.
-- Charles T. Downey