United Kingdom De Lalande, Corelli – Concert Spirituel: Sestina Music / Mark Chambers (Director), Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 25.4.2025. (RB)
Michel-Richard De Lalande – Suite in G Minor; Première Caprice de Villers Cotteret; Confitebor Tibi Domine, S56; Cantate Domino
Archangelo Corelli – Concerto Grosso pour la Nuit de Noel
Sestina Music are an ensemble with a reputation for excellence and authenticity in the performance of early music as well as a fresh and innovative approach to programming. Mark Chambers has been the group’s musical director since its inauguration in 2011. Chambers announced that he would be standing down from his role as musical director following this concert to take on new challenges.
The strapline for the concert, Concert Spirituel refers to the first regular public concert series in continental Europe. It ran between 1725 and 1790 in Paris and aimed to provide public music on religious holidays when the opera was closed. It featured grand motets, instrumental works and works by German and Italian composers. This concert by Sestina Music marks the 300th anniversary of the original concert series.
The first half of the concert featured works by Michel-Richard De Lalande, who was one of the preeminent composers in the courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV. He was a contemporary of Lully and Couperin, and he was known as one of the most important composers of grand motets. He also wrote Simphonies pour le Soupers du Roi (Symphonies for the King’s Supper), a substantial collection of instrumental works that evoke vivid imagery and expressive contrasts.
The programme opened with De Lalande’s Suite in G Minor which conjures up a world of different characters, passions and evocative landscapes. Sestina Music succeeded in creating an authentic Baroque soundworld. The opening Overture conjured up the ornate pageantry of the period while the subsequent Allegro was played with enormous vigour with the string lines clearly demarcated. In the subsequent dances, the ensemble succeeded brilliantly in evoking pastoral landscapes (‘Marche des Bergers’), battle scenes (‘Air des Combattants’), and coastal scenes (‘Entreé des Matelots’). The final Tambourin was a lively folk dance with gradually got faster as the movement progressed. The ensemble played with relish and increasing brio driving the suite to its brilliant conclusion.
De Lalande’s Première Caprice de Villers Cotteret is also a suite along similar lines. Once again there was much to admire in this performance by Sestina Music. I was impressed with the highly expressive playing by the ensemble’s viola de gamba players, Sarah Groser and Norah O’Leary, in the slow third movement. The ensemble’s two recorder players, Laoise O’Brien and Caoimhe de Paor, treated the audience to some lively interplay in the fourth movement.
Confitebor tibi Domine is a setting of the 111th Psalm and exemplifies de Lalande’s ability to blend dramatic expression with refined vocal and instrumental writing. The opening orchestral symphony establishes a dignified, stately tone, while the choir when they enter embodies the collective voice of worship, and the soloists’ intimate devotion. The soloists all acquitted themselves well and I was particularly impressed with tenor Matthew Long’s ringing tone and countertenor Christopher’s Bowen’s vocal agility in negotiating de Lalande’s intricate melismatic lines. I would have welcomed more vocal heft from baritone Robert Davies. Soprano Sarah Keating was very impressive in the final work on the programme although her diction could have been a little clearer in this piece and I would have liked her to cut through the orchestral textures more. Mark Chambers achieved a good balance between the full choir and orchestra and the entries were tight although their diction could have been clearer on occasion too.
Corelli’s ‘Christmas Concerto’ is one of the great staples of the Baroque repertoire and it received a sterling performance here. Sestina Music handled the tempo shifts well and the suspensions were gorgeous in the sublime Adagio. There were a range of impressive textural and dynamic contrasts as the music veered from slow deliberate tempi to more frenetic activity. However, some of the entries could have been tighter as the music moved between sections. Some of the playing was also a little tentative and there was scope to mine more some of the dramatic contrasts in the music. The final Pastorale had a wonderful lyrical flow and beauty of tone.
The final work on the programme, Cantate Domino is a setting of Psalm 96, and it was the most frequently performed of de Lalande’s works during the Concerts Spirituel. Soprano Sarah Keating and countertenor Christopher Bowen were both impressive in this work with Keating producing gorgeous tone colours and Bowen again demonstrating considerable vocal agility. There was close collaboration between choir and orchestra in the rousing final chorus which was rich and vibrant and ended the concert on high note.
Great singing and playing from Sestina Music and congratulations to Mark Chambers for all his considerable achievements with the ensemble.
Robert Beattie