...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 |
| 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
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
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 |
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
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
Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, May 9th 2010
by Stephen Neal Dennis
Suddenly, Washington audiences are becoming very familiar with the Monteverdi 1610
Vespers. In just over two years there have been at least three major public
performances. Four local choral groups presented a “large chorus” version at the Music
Center at Strathmore in April 2008, a rather old-fashioned version left over from the days
when “bigger is better” was always the approach to the major monuments of Renaissance
choral music. The Folger Consort presented an adapted “early music” version at
Washington National Cathedral in January 2010, and on Mother’s Day Countertop
presented an eloquent “Venetian” version at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church on
Fifth Street.
The two most interesting versions have been the Folger Consort version and the
Countertop version. The Folger Consort dealt with all the problems scholars have
identified, the continuing question of whether Monteverdi “intended” all of the parts to be
performed at one time and whether the parts must be performed in the order in which they
appear in a manuscript or original printed publication. Except to musicologists, these are
fairly picky questions, though the Folger Consort decision to insert a brass piece by
Gabrielli created an impressive if inauthentic variation.
This was always religious music intended to impress and elevate, and it must do one
or the other; ideally it will do both. The vast spaces of Washington National Cathedral tend
to soak up sound, and where a member of the audience is sitting affects greatly the quality
of what he will hear. At St. Mary Mother of God the space is more confined, and the sound
will be projected forward into a highly resonant acoustical space.
The Folger Consort used ten voices, and Countertop used 14 voices. Countertop had
12 musicians, and the Folger Consort had used 14. Superficially, the two groups should
have produced similar results. Both groups used cornettos and sackbuts or slide
trombones. But here the resemblance ended.
Countertop had some exceptional voices, especially its tenors Matthew Smith and
Jason Rylander. Both had clear, ardent voices that soared above a lot of brass noise. By
moving his singers around slightly during the progression of movements during the
Vespers, Chris Dudley created the effect of a large Venetian space with separated vocal
and instrumental choirs “speaking” and responding across large spaces. A similar effect
could probably be created under the great dome at St. Matthew’s Cathedral downtown,
placing listeners in such an overwhelming surge of sound that the impact of the music
would become palpable, the physical prelude to rapture.
This is precisely the effect many listeners believe the Monteverdi Vespers should
create, a wash of sound that is much like standing in a wind tunnel after the wind has been
turned on.
by Stephen Neal Dennis
Suddenly, Washington audiences are becoming very familiar with the Monteverdi 1610
Vespers. In just over two years there have been at least three major public
performances. Four local choral groups presented a “large chorus” version at the Music
Center at Strathmore in April 2008, a rather old-fashioned version left over from the days
when “bigger is better” was always the approach to the major monuments of Renaissance
choral music. The Folger Consort presented an adapted “early music” version at
Washington National Cathedral in January 2010, and on Mother’s Day Countertop
presented an eloquent “Venetian” version at St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church on
Fifth Street.
The two most interesting versions have been the Folger Consort version and the
Countertop version. The Folger Consort dealt with all the problems scholars have
identified, the continuing question of whether Monteverdi “intended” all of the parts to be
performed at one time and whether the parts must be performed in the order in which they
appear in a manuscript or original printed publication. Except to musicologists, these are
fairly picky questions, though the Folger Consort decision to insert a brass piece by
Gabrielli created an impressive if inauthentic variation.
This was always religious music intended to impress and elevate, and it must do one
or the other; ideally it will do both. The vast spaces of Washington National Cathedral tend
to soak up sound, and where a member of the audience is sitting affects greatly the quality
of what he will hear. At St. Mary Mother of God the space is more confined, and the sound
will be projected forward into a highly resonant acoustical space.
The Folger Consort used ten voices, and Countertop used 14 voices. Countertop had
12 musicians, and the Folger Consort had used 14. Superficially, the two groups should
have produced similar results. Both groups used cornettos and sackbuts or slide
trombones. But here the resemblance ended.
Countertop had some exceptional voices, especially its tenors Matthew Smith and
Jason Rylander. Both had clear, ardent voices that soared above a lot of brass noise. By
moving his singers around slightly during the progression of movements during the
Vespers, Chris Dudley created the effect of a large Venetian space with separated vocal
and instrumental choirs “speaking” and responding across large spaces. A similar effect
could probably be created under the great dome at St. Matthew’s Cathedral downtown,
placing listeners in such an overwhelming surge of sound that the impact of the music
would become palpable, the physical prelude to rapture.
This is precisely the effect many listeners believe the Monteverdi Vespers should
create, a wash of sound that is much like standing in a wind tunnel after the wind has been
turned on.
| 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 |
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