International Young Artists Presentation
Laus Polyphoniae 2023
AMUZ Antwerp, 19 August 2023

The International Young Artists Presentation (IYAP) is an annual coaching programme run by the Musica Impulscentrum (Musica Impulse Centre) and AMUZ (Flanders Festival Antwerp), during the Laus Polyphoniae festival (reviewed here). On the first Saturday of Laus Polyphoniae, after three days of coaching by Peter Van Heyghen and Raquel Andueza, six selected young vocal and instrumental early music ensembles present themselves to a public audience in the AMUZ concert hall, which includes potentially useful members of the wider music industry, including concert promoters – and reviewers. The focus of the coaching is on presentation, the story the ensembles want to tell, the structure of their programme and their interaction with the audience. The six ensembles chosen this year were Vestigium Ensemble, Contre le Temps, Liane Sadler & Elias Conrad, Duo Yamane, Rubens Rosa, and Apollo’s Cabinet.

The Vestigium Ensemble (Ana Fernández Anguita, flute, Andrés García Fraile, viola da gamba, and Eliot Xaquin Dios Martinez, harpsichord) presented a programme, De la corruption du goût, that reflected the battle of the styles between traditional French Baroque music and the increasing influence of the Italian style that took place in Paris around 1740. They played music by Philidor, Telemann, Corelli, Rameau, Blavet and Taillart. They gave a very professional performance, not least in giving very clear indications to the audience as to when was an appropriate moment for applause – a lesson well worth learning for all musicians. The first three pieces were segued together with harpsichord links. During the Rameau Piece de clavecin en concerts the intended prominence of the harpsichord was well respected. They ended with extracts from Sonatas by two lesser-known composers, Blavet and Taillart, segued to form a three-movement Sonata.

The four young singers of Contre le Temps (Cécile Walch & Karin Weston, sopranos, Amy Farnell & Julia Marty, mezzo) explored early polyphony from the 11th to the 13th centuries in their programme Mundus vergens. This was a time when Gregorian chant evolved into polyphony, generally through improvising melodies onto a Gregorian chant, something that started in Notre Dame in Paris and marked a new stage in the evolution of Western music history. They contrasted anonymous works from that period with a close harmony composition by Julia Marty, one of the singers. Of course, it was most unlikely that any of these early examples of polyphony would have been sung by women, but at least they showed that the repertoire for an all-female group need not be limited to Hildegard. Their voices sounded good in consort, and they all had a chance for solo spots in Vir erat in terra. They started singing close to the front of the deep stage but moved further away as the programme progressed sometimes with singers turning their backs to the audience, something I would generally avoid.

In their programme Maddalena Casulana: Dialogues, Liane Sadler & Elias Conrad explored the music of Maddalena Casulana, the first woman to publish her own collections of madrigals. In the preface to her 1568 collection, she wrote that she wanted to prove that women can compose as well as men. She was praised by her contemporaries, including the other composers represented in this programme: de Rore, Lassus, and Vicentino. It was good to hear music from a little-known female composer although, as her surviving music was all in the form of madrigals, I am not sure if arranging it for Renaissance flute and lute was the best way of revealing her musical talents. None of the madrigal texts were given, so we only had the titles to hint at the possible mood – and 14 shortish pieces with little contrast between them did rather struggle to ignite the audience. That said, they played well.

Duo Yamane (Futo Yamane, cello, and Yuki Yamane, pianoforte) severely pushed the boundaries of ‘early music’ by asking the question Beethoven & Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: classical or romantic? by comparing pieces composed four years apart – Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in D, Op.102/2. and the Variations concertantes in D, Op.17, by Mendelssohn, based on a ‘song without words’ theme. They Mendelssohn was born 39 years after Beethoven and is considered a romantic composer – but how ‘classic’ was his music? Beethoven’s early works are considered to be Classical, his late compositions Romantic, but when did his music tip over? Both pieces were played with panache and style, with a freedom of pulse that might have pushed stylistic boundaries. Music of this period is way beyond my usual early music experience, but I did wonder at the frequent spreading of chords on the (1824) fortepiano.

The young vocal-instrumental ensemble Rubens Rosa (Karin Weston, vocals, Aliénor Wolteche, violin, Elizabeth Sommers, viola d’arco, Melina Perlein-Féliers, harp, and Asako Ueda, lute) gave their programme Hidden charms. The versatile, hidden facets of the Capetown Codex, which explored a manuscript compiled sometime before 1506 in a Benedictine monastery in northern Italy and now, as the name suggests, in South Africa. It contains compositions from around 1430 to around 1500. Soprano Karin Weston had an impressively clear and focused voice that carried well in the hall whilst also blending with the instruments – but she should choose quieter shoes! They made good use of the instruments in providing contrast and ended with them all singing.

Apollo’s Cabinet (Ella Bodeker soprano, Teresa Wrann, recorder, David Lopez Fernandez, violin, Harry Buckoke, viola da gamba, Jonatan Bougt, theorbo & baroque guitar, Daniel Watt, percussion) gave a programme Traveling with Burney, following the English composer and musicologist Charles Burney’s travels through Europe in 1770 and 1772. His writings paint a fascinating picture of the music culture of the time based on his journies in France, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Nertherlands, and England – here represented with music by Corrette, Hasse, Schmelzer, Buxtehude, and Playford. If there was any doubt about the performing experience of some of the younger ensembles, Apollo’s Cabinet showed just how to do it in an outstandingly professional and entertaining concert. They made good use of the acting skills of soprano Ella Bodeker who gave vocal introductions as well as acting out various stories behind the music, notably Kraut und Ruben (Cabbage and turnips), the melody of which is quoted in Buxtehude’s Las Capricciosa. Several of the pieces could be classed as ‘show stoppers’ and they made a particularly impressive show stopper to the IYAP series of mini concerts.

Several of the concerts started with handouts that changed the printed programmes in the Laus Polyphoniae book, generally altering the order of pieces. As there were so many of these programme changes, I wondered if this was the result of suggestions by the coaches. If so, I would caution against it in future.