The West Australian
June 13 2008
Reviewer: William Yeoman

A madrigal recital can be a bit like a village fete on TV's Midsomer Murders - seemingly innocuous and more than a little twee but scratch the surface and there's sex and death everywhere. This superb concert by Perth's premiere vocal ensemble, tbe Giovanni Consort, was no exception.

True, there were fewer of those Italian Mannerist madrigals that conflate death with the orgasm than one might have wished. But by structuring his program around the theme of Body and Soul, conductor Andrew Sutherland was able to explore that troublesome dichotomy between the sacred and the profane without recourse to gimmicky innuendo or exaggerated pathos.

The European Renaissance madrigal was usually sUng by unaccompanied voices and almost certainly one-to-a-part; the Giovanni Consort's dozen or so singers therefore adopted various configurations throughout the evening from solo and duo through five or six singers to full ensemble.

Taking a leaf from British ensemble I Fagiolini's book, the Consort began its recital by singing Domenique Phinot's Lynote seated among the audience. This had the immediate effect of a greater intimacy that returned only towards the end of the evening when the singers arranged themselves in a semi-circle between the stage and the audience for a work Sutherland called "possibly the most beautiful piece ever written": Robert Ramsay's Sleep Fleshly Birth. One
wished that the entire concert had been sung from here, such was the resultant warmth and richness.

In between these two-works were so many delights that it would be impossible to mention every one. Chief among them, though, was Claudio Monteverdi's delicious Anima del cor mio.

By contrast, Orlando di Lasso's hilarious Der Nasentanz, with its catalogue of noses, had many in the audience snorting with delight. Sopranos Sabra Poole-Johnson and Stephanie Parr also impressed with their ravishing duet Deux que le trait d'Amour, while young baritone Thomas Friberg performed the solo Mi Hart, My Mynde with great expressivity.

 To see the article as displayed in the paper, please follow the link: Review - Heart, soul of madrigals