Album Notes

Pennsylvania Consort Presents
The Bellefield Singers
by Jack Kantner

Friday, March 26, 1999
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING*
The Praises of the Bellefield Singers


Reviewers and critics of musical performances thrive on mistakes, false entries, unbalanced ensemble playing, unappealing or inappropriate timbres, tempos, tuning, interpretations and musical gaffs of infinite variety. The rationale for such a parade of subjective and frequently capricious aesthetic judgement might be, in the case of a long run performance, to warn the unwary or, conversely, to swell future houses. It is also an occasion for the reviewer to air his musical prejudices and display such musical erudition as she/he might possess or can easily come by. It is a pleasant activity requiring little brain beyond that of a surveillance camera with an audio tape backup..

But what to do in the case of a single performance faultlessly and exquisitely performed? No one to warn away or entice to future performances. No opportunity for petty self aggrandisement by intoning against minor glitches - which in any case should not be allowed to stand in negative witness to a performance of overall high quality. It is, as my granddaughter used to say of mastering the physical challenges of childhood, " a hard do". In this case for the reviewer not for the novice stair climber.

The Bellefield Singers on their second appearance in Bedford in recent years, inaugurated the second half of the Pennsylvania Consort's 1998-99 season. They sang selections from the sacred music of the Renaissance, Elizabethan Madrigals, two seldom heard pieces from 20th century French vocal repertoire, International Folk Songs and Popular Repertoire by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Lennon/McCartney. After their extremely clever and humorous "Farewell Overture" (why overture I can't say), the group obliged with an encore by Ward Swingle of Swingle Singer fame (or was it PDQ Bach?), that, with great musical insight and humour, imposed the style of JS Bach on that perennial New Orleans favourite, "When the Saints Come Marching In". A tour de force! .

There were, doubtless, many high points for the audience. For me and many listeners a sure favourite was the Taiwanese folk song "Diu Diu Dang Ah", a musical description of a small, huffing mountain train with a piercing whistle to alert stray cows and expectant villagers to its arrival. A Spanish lament about a vanishing love between two inebriates entitled Los Mareados. ends with a soaring vocalese that, for me, was worth the price of admission. Also expertly rendered was a charming piece entitled "The Nightingale" composed by Thomas Weelkes who lived around the turn of the 16th Century.

Any choice would rest on the composer since all selections got a ten for authentic sound and execution. From the strong, sombre, open harmonies of the Renaissance, to the twitter and frippery of English Madrigals, to the rich vocal delights of well arranged folk songs, and to the dense, close arrangements of American 'standards', the Bellefield Singers once again validated their place as one of America's premier vocal ensembles. Six voices each of distinctive quality in solo performance, merge in ensemble into perfect resonance and articulation

*Title song of the Bellefield Singers latest CD