Good Friday, 6th April 2012 at 8PM
St Augustine’s Catholic Church, Eaton Street, BALMAIN
‘I had to turn away to hide my tears, especially at the place, 'Vidit suum dulcem natum’…
German poet Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853)
"Stabat mater" is one of Christianity's most poignant creations: the lamenting Mary watches her son crucified on the Cross and the narrator pleads to share in her sorrow and gain Paradise himself.
Vivaldi's early career as a composer was devoted mostly to instrumental works. Then, in 1712, when Vivaldi was in his mid-30s, he was commissioned to write the Stabat Mater for the church of Santa María della Pace in Brescia. Recent sources indicate that it was his first sacred work. Then as it is now, the singer was male, although we do not know whether he was a castrato or a countertenor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this Stabat Mater does not feature the soloist at the expense of the instrumentalists, whose music is nevertheless kept to a modest scale. Modesty also figures in the work's thematic content, as the music of the first three sections is recycled in the second three. What is most attractive about this balance and above all, devout, work, is the absence of Virtuoso display and extreme emotion.
One of the first exponents of the Neapolitan School, Alessandro Scarlatti, was commissioned by the Order of "Cavalieri della Virgine dei Dolori" in Naples. He annually honoured the Virgin by dedicating to her a Stabat Mater during the Lenten season. His work, more than that of Pergolesi, is full of quasi-operatic devices – pregnant pauses, dissonant ‘sighs’, and, in the final ‘Amen’, some exhilarating vocal acrobatics.
The Sydney Consort warmly invites you for our special concert on Good Friday to share and celebrate this devout music intentionally composed for this day, filled with sorrowful baroque arias and the dramatic beauty of Stabat Mater.
ENJOY MUSIC BY
| Antonio VIVALDI | Stabat Mater for alto, strings & basso continuo |
| Alessandro SCARLATTI | Stabat Mater for soprano, alto, strings & basso continuo |
MUSICIANS:
| Belinda Montgomery soprano |
| Anna Fraser mezzo- soprano |
| Stan Kornel, Skye McIntosh baroque violins |
| Valmai Coggins baroque viola |
| Anthony Albrecht baroque cello |
| Monika Kornel harpsichord |
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Soprano Belinda Montgomery graduated in 1997 from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Voice. She later studied with Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb in England and has since established a freelance career in Sydney, where she is particularly active as an early music specialist. She has appeared regularly with such ensembles as The Marais project, The Sydney Consort and Salut!Baroque.
Solo engagements have included Bach Cantatas (The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), Handel’s Dixit Dominus ((Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir), Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Faure’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Solemn Vespers (Sydney Chamber Choir) and Steve Reich’s Drumming (Synergy Percussion). In 2003 she gave the world premiere performance of Andrew Ford’s award-winning song cycle, Learning to Howl.
As both a soloist and chorus member she has performed and recorded extensively with Cantillation, Australia's leading professional chorus. Belinda sang the role of Iris in Pinchgut Opera’s inaugural production, Handel’s Semele, in 2002 and has appeared as soloist and chorister in all subsequent productions.
She has sung with the chorus of Opera Australia in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte and also performed the role of first women in OzOpera’s Eternity Man, by Jonathan Mills, in the 2005 Sydney Festival.
Recent performances have included Steve Reich’s Tehillim with Halcyon at Melbourne’s new Recital Centre as well as a guest soloist appearance with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra and Chorale. Belinda was the soprano soloist for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria in May, 2009.
Born in Sydney, Anna Fraser has gained a reputation as a versatile soprano specialising predominantly in the interpretation of early and contemporary repertoire. Holding a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance at New England Conservatory in Boston (2002), Anna was awarded a number of distinguished awards to facilitate her study in the United States: a Queen's Trust Grant for Young Australians, a Centenary Scholarship from the Foundation for Young Australians, and an Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Scholarship. In 2002, before returning to Australia Anna attended the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program in the United Kingdom and was a soloist in Handel's Dixit Dominus and the masque Acis and Galatea at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Anna performs extensively with a number of Sydney's professional ensembles and, as a permanent member since 2008, has been performing with The Song Company full time which has included annual tours of Australia and abroad, most recently to the Flanders Festival in Gent; in 2010 extensive international performance opportunities with the Company will take Anna to Shanghai for the World Expo, Mexico and New Zealand.
With professional ensembles Cantillation, and Pinchgut Opera - joining the specialised opera company in their annual productions since 2004, with roles in productions of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (Speranza), Rameau’s Dardanus (Une Phrygienne) and most recently in their 2009 production, Cavalli’s L’Ormindo, where she took on the two roles of Mirinda and Melide to much acclaim – Anna has performed extensively and has been featured in numerous recordings for ABC Classic release. Additional solo engagements have included performances with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - in their 2006 concert Pomp and Madness, in a concert performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Second Woman and Second Witch) in 2007, then later in 2010 will partake in their performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers; and with baroque specialists, Salut! Baroque – Anna has been featured in their subscription series concerts: The Grand Tour (2008) and The Sun King (2009), a programme of French baroque duets with soprano, Jane Sheldon. Later in 2010, Anna will reunite with Jane to join Salut! for another sumptuous programme of Italian duets.
Always enthusiastic about performing early music, in 2009 Anna had the opportunity to perform unique and rare baroque works with Consort Astraea in the acclaimed program Harmonious Revolutions, an early music multimedia presentation for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.
Tickets at door $30/$20 (conc)
Enq: 0416 345 489
music@sydneyconsort.com.au
www.sydneyconsort.com.au