Cover image: Pacific MusicWorks performing “Steffani: Songs of Love and Passion” (Photo: PMW/Jan Gates)
Pacific MusicWorks opened its tenth anniversary season Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Parish, reprising an engaging performance of rarely-performed music given last summer at the Boston Early Music Festival — where, wearing his other hat, Stephen Stubbs, artistic director of Pacific MusicWorks, is co-director.
Most of us have likely never heard of Agostino Steffani, but in the late-17th to early-18th century he was an Italian powerhouse of brilliant, sophisticated vocal chamber music, and from whose work composers like Handel learned plenty. For this concert, Stubbs chose some of his finest duets and titled it “Steffani: Songs of Love and Passion,” bringing in Boston performers sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Emoke Barath, tenor Colin Balzer, baritone Christian Immler, and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, all using baroque instruments (comprising Stubbs himself, here playing guitar, harpist Maxine Eilander, harpsichordist Michael Sponseller and viola da gambist Erin Headley).
There was a generous number of duets which were interspersed with solos from each of the instrumentalists by contemporary composers, the whole amounting to a beautiful, musical bouquet.
What was remarkable was the realization, afterwards, of how difficult these works are to sing, and how easy these superb singers made them appear. All four are steeped in baroque performance, encompassing the florid lines with the passion and expression indicated by the words. The balance between each pair was perfect, shading exquisite, the words clear — though it was unnecessary to to follow the words in the program (in Italian and English) to get the gist of the feelings, such as the hovering melisma on the word “mormoran” (murmur) in “Tengo per infallibile” (“I take it as certain”).
All of the duets included a soprano role. A couple, bracketing the concert, were for soprano and baritone, the first sung by Forsythe and Immler, the last by Barath and Immler. Worth hearing, it’s not a combination of ranges we often come across, while the other duets were for tenor and soprano with two duets for two sopranos.
These last joined in the joyful, full-throated delight of young love described in “Su, ferrisci, alato arciero” (“Come on, shoot, winged archer”), their different timbres dovetailing over and around each other. Where Forsythe’s voice is bright, open, clear, Barath’s has a slightly deeper texture, a tad richer, fruitier, both voices nuanced with a ringing top which sounded effortless and with extraordinarily accurate pitch sense. They would come together over and again on a perfectly matched note.
While the words are over the top, the feelings are still universal — one song describes jealousy and the relief when it dissipates, another the fire of blazing love, a third beseeching for love’s recognition. The songs were the reason for the program, but the instrumental interludes were of equal delight, particularly Maxine Eilander’s fine performance of Frescobaldi’s “Partita sopra la Ciaccona.” It was a pleasure to hear her playing as a lead, rather than, as often, a continuo player.
The only imbalance of the concert came with Erin Headley’s viola da gamba performance of “Col partir la bella Clori” originally from a cantata aria by Handel. The repeating bass rhythm from all the other instruments is exciting and fun to hear, but it overwhelmed Headley’s long line which was often on lower strings of her instrument.
This concert bodes well for Pacific MusicWorks upcoming season. The group is expanding to five formal main concerts plus its recent partnership with Henry Lebedinsky’s Early Music Underground, which will give a raft of informal concerts at venues from pubs and breweries to Resonance at SOMA Towers in Bellevue: food, drink, adventurous programs in a casual setting with conversation and first-class music.
Next up for PMW will be Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo in concert performance at St. Mark’s Cathedral on October 28, in which tenor Balzer from the “Steffani” program sings the title role.