Musical time-travel courtesy of the Apollo Ensemble and Sydney’s Great Synagogue.

The Great Synagogue, Sydney

January 14, 2014

If you’re a sucker for a site-specific classical musical event (and I confess that I most certainly am) then this one would definitely have been for you. Hot on the heels of The Tallis Scholars singing Renaissance polyphony in St Mary’s Cathedral at the back end of last year, here we had five period instrumentalists and two superb singers transporting us back in a musical TARDIS to Amsterdam’s Esnoga, more commonly known as the Portuguese Synagogue, and performed in Sydney’s most impressive building dedicated to the Jewish Faith – the appropriately named Great Synagogue.

The Victorian grandeur of the interior with its whipped cream plasterwork, ornate Ark and commanding Bimah made the perfect setting for a bit of musical drama which, on the whole, was what we got. A plethora of composers were represented, some Jewish, some not, some obscure, some almost totally forgotten in a program designed for contrast rather than representing an attempt at a liturgical reconstruction of any kind.

The works ranged from mini cantatas like Mani’s Le-El Nora (think Arne but in Hebrew) – an appropriately jolly setting written to celebrate Simchat Torah – to an anonymous Kol Heneshama (an Italianate affair reminiscent of the likes of Carissimi) replete with cascading Hallelujahs – written specifically for the Portuguese Jewish community sometime in the 18th century. These pieces, recently discovered but lacking instrumental accompaniments, were lovingly reconstructed by Ton Koopman for the Apollo Ensemble, many of whom are associated with Koopman’s own brilliant Amsterdam Baroque.

Interspersed throughout the program were instrumental sonatas and sinfonias by the likes of Salomone Rossi (with dates of 1570-1630 the earliest music of the evening and essentially Renaissance consort music) and Uccelini, his intriguingly titled Sonate La Ebreo Marinata – not the sonata for the marinated Jewish lady but more likely for the Jewish woman at sea or possibly a typo for the married Jewish woman.

The five instrumentalists were placed on a raised platform in front of the Bimah with the two soloists either aloft in front of the hidden choir or utilising the Rabbinical lectern. The former was an atmospheric and appropriate choice but lead to some problems keeping time between ensemble and soloist (the radiant, pitch perfect Norwegian soprano and early music specialist, Siri Karoline Thornhill). A firmer hand on the tiller might have overcome this but it was never entirely clear who was in charge with respect to tempi. The engaging bassoonist Thomas Oltheten added a welcome spring to the steps of the continuo group but it must be said that wandering intonation problems bedeviled the string players throughout the evening.

The musical highlight was undoubtedly the extended dramatic solo cantata on Psalm 21 by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739). Written in Italian with a bit of Hebrew in the middle and including a number of Sephardic themes that he’d researched and notated in the Venice ghetto, this was at times pure Baroque opera and received a compelling performance by the warm-toned Dutch countertenor Maarten Engeltjes. This was music or real character and bags of charm with quirky offbeat rhythms and just a hint of strangeness possibly associated with its melodic roots. Singer and ensemble held our attention over 15-20 minutes of recitatives and ariosi incorporating jaunty waltzes and jigs. Incidentally, if you want to catch more of Engeltjes, he sings a stunning and deeply moving Klag-Lied on Ton Koopman’s latest Buxtehude vocal works disc (see below – to be reviewed in an upcoming issue of Limelight).

The Great Synagogue, it must be said, is not only a beautiful building but there’s not a bad seat in the house. If it’s one of the aims of the Sydney Festival to open up the whole of the city to artistic experience, in that respect it doesn’t come much better than this.