QuintEssential's entertain with sounds of 17th Century Venice and more (From The Westmorland Gazette)

QuintEssential's entertain with sounds of 17th Century Venice and more

10:10am Saturday 21st August 2010 in

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Lake District Summer Music QuintEssential, Kendal Parish Church MUSICA Transalpina was the title given to the concert at the parish church in the second week of LDSM, as the cornett and sackbut ensemble, QuintEssential, conjured up the sounds of 17th Century Venice in works by composers associated with important centres of music-making in that city. The programme was presented informally in an interesting and entertaining manner.

The spacious acoustics of the church were admirably suited for the succession of canzonas, sonatas and other instrumental items, interspersed with vocal items by the soprano Kirsty Hopkins (who, for some reason, failed to get a mention in the programme). All these formed the basis of the Italian first half of the concert.

In the second half, we moved ‘transalpina’ - across the Alps - to England as we heard works by English composers of the late 16th Century. The playing throughout the evening was of a high standard. It is not easy to maintain tuning in a cornett and sackbut ensemble, but this was well-managed; the playing was rhythmic and well balanced. Kirsty Hopkins’s glorious voice perhaps came across at its best in Richard Dering’s O Donna troppo cruda; in some other vocal items there were balance problems.

In a festival predominantly devoted to music of a later era, it was good to hear music from this early period performed so professionally.