The Song Company and The Promise

A concert to be treasured

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Review: Stories of A Cappella

The Song Company and The Promise, Ladies Chapel, Saturday, May 30, 2015

As a recording engineer, I’ve heard The Song Company many times when recording its concerts in the excellent acoustics of the Harold Lobb Concert Hall at The Conservatorium of The University of Newcastle. Such a reverberant space allows the voices of this a cappella ensemble of six professional singers to soar, so I wondered if the more intimate space of Ladies Chapel on Avondale College of Higher Education’s Lake Macquarie campus would disappoint. I needn’t have worried.

The Song Company has been delighting audiences for more than 30 years with performances of works spanning more than 1000 years. Under the guidance of Roland Peelman, artistic director since 1990, the ensemble has developed a commitment to education, and this concert—Stories of A Cappella—was the culmination of two workshops and a combined rehearsal with Avondale’s vocal ensemble The Promise, directed by Aleta King.

The Song Company began the concert with the madrigal “Music Divine” by Thomas Tomkins, the Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period, and then followed madrigals by John Ward and Thomas Weelkes. Showing how wide and eclectic is its repertoire, The Song Company moved on to delightful settings by New Zealand composer Garreth Farr of poems by Australian poet Les Murray and a work that gave the audience a glimpse of what cats might dream by the Tashkent-born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

The Promise continued the superb night of music with the rhythmic one-word song “Alleluia” by African American composer Eurydice Osterman, John Tavener’s setting of the poem The Lamb by William Blake, “Hosanna” by Greg Jasperse—The Promise met him on a recent tour to the United States—and a thoughtful rendering of “When David Heard” by another American composer, Richard Burchard.

Both ensembles showed they could interpret popular contemporary artists: The Promise gave a sweet rendering of “Run to You” by Pentatonix while the Song Company gave us “Glitter in the Air” by Pink and, accompanied by Peelman on an oriental drum, “Skinny Love” by the American indie folk band Bon Iver.

Two works for which The Song Company and The Promise combined encapsulated the breadth of human experience that can be depicted by the human voice: The Song Company’s own arrangement of “Waltzing Matilda” that featured a chant using Aboriginal words, Aboriginal clapsticks as well as some high throat singing effects; and finally the luscious harmonies and exquisite shaping of Ralph Carmichael’s “A Quiet Place.”

A concert to be treasured in the memory.

Graham Wilson
Author

Graham Wilson

Graham is manager of prodiuction and IT at 2NURFM.

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