Lake District Summer Music, Kendal

Few composers have achieved such notoriety in their lifetime as Carlo Gesualdo, writes Clive Walkley. He is remembered for the murder of his first wife and her lover. Caught in the act of adultery, it was common in southern Italy for a nobleman at the time to go unpunished for his crime.

This much is common knowledge but, sadly, Gesualdo’s behaviour and tales of his turbulent emotional state have sometimes been allowed to eclipse his music. Not so on when this was presented within the context of a dramatic presentation of the last day of his life aged 47. Alone in his chapel he is haunted by memories of his first wife. His consort of singers bring him some comfort as they perform his madrigals and Tenebrae Responsories.

St George’s Church, Kendal, proved a superb venue for the staging of this enthralling mid-week Lake District Summer Music event. On stage were the six members of the Marian Consort, lutenist, Jamie Akers, and actor, Gerald Kyd.

Gesualdo certainly broke the accepted rules of composition of his time but one might argue that his music is all the more powerful because of this. Certainly the Marian Consort relished his searing chromatic harmonies reflecting the turbulence of a deeply troubled mind and the performances of singers and actor were sublime. The singers flawless technique, evident in their pitching, breath control, tonal blend and sense of ensemble, was a lesson to all who aspire to perfection in consort singing. But, more than this, it was the expressive power of their performances which impacted deeply on the audience. A truly superb evening.

Another performance of the week that merits the word ‘superb’ was that of the Skampa Quartet making a welcome return to LDSM after an absence of several years. The quartet’s concert in St Thomas Church, Kendal, when they were joined by Roger Chase, viola, and Alec Frank-Gemmill, horn, was a near sell-out, such is the reputation of these fine players. Mozart’s Horn Quintet - almost a horn concerto in the demands it makes on the horn - was given a dazzling performance by all five players with Alec Frank-Gemmill dispatching the technically demanding horn part with apparent ease.

In Dvorak’s String Quartet No 9, the four players fully embraced the composer’s Czech idiom in the polka and produced a rich warm tone with subtle pianissimos in the slow movement. Following this, Roger Chase rejoined the quartet for an immaculate performance of Mozart’s Viola Quartet. This was ensemble playing at the highest level and there were many delightful moments, one of which was the glorious duet between first violin and first viola in the Andante, where the matching phrases were passed seamlessly and beautifully between the two players. Another memorable evening.