Have just attended the concert Dawn of the cantata given by the Academy of Ancient Music at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, as part of the AAM series Musical Revolutions. Jonathan Cohen marked his debut as conductor of the AAM with this programme, which included soprano Anna Prohaska and tenors Benjamin Hulett and James Gilchrist.
The AAM continues to be at the top of the early music game and Cohen conducted from the harpsichord/chamber organ a superb programme of early Italian vocal and instrumental pieces – including pieces by Falconieri, Castello, Marini and Zanetti, and vocal solos and duets by Cavalli and Monteverdi, as well as Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda – and the packed house showed a thorough appreciation of the evening's music by generous and enthusiastic applause.
Despite the title, the programme had no Cantatas as such, although the originally advertised programme included Barbara Strozzi's Udite amanti, which was sadly absent; this would have provided the one! However, it was a wonderful concert, and such a treat to hear live a performance of Il combattimento – here Gilchrist really gave his best. Nevertheless, the uncontested vocal highlight of the evening was the duet from Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, which closed the first half. As the lovestruck servants Melanto and Eurimaco, Prohaska and Hulett provided the very best singing of the evening; stylistically immaculate and yet fresh and full of emotion. The instrumental ensemble was also on top form, both on the sonatas and as the most fantastic continuo group.
'Historically informed' performance is alive and kicking in Cambridge: such an involved and responsive audience adds so much to the proceedings, that the audience should get a mention too!
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