Rollins Chapel, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 25, 2003
Rollins Chapel at Dartmouth College exhibited more of the attributes of a sauna than a concert hall last Wednesday night in Hanover, New Hampshire, but the 90-plus-degree temperatures seemed to present virtually no obstacle to the three extraordinary women of Trio Mediaeval, who performed a profoundly memorable concert of ancient and modern works for a dedicated and enthusiastic audience. The venue, a venerated site on the college’s famed “field of green”, looks like a huge inverted wooden ship–and its superb acoustics definitely offset the building’s decidedly ovenlike ambience, proving an ideal environment for this Norway-based vocal ensemble to work its amazing musical magic.
Beginning with Gavin Bryars’ Ave Regina Gloriosa, a stunning mix of bright harmonic colors and melodic lyricism, the three singers almost instantly obliterated their listeners’ heat-induced discomfort and replaced it with a different, more welcome kind of warmth–and eager anticipation for what would come next. If you’ve been listening to, teaching, and critiquing voices most of your life, you may think you’ve heard everything; but until you’ve heard Trio Mediaeval, you haven’t. The purity, control, and effortless technical command these singers exhibit is a marvel. And although their ECM recording (see reviews), which includes the Messe de Tournai and Ivan Moody’s stunning masterpiece Words of the Angel (both of which were featured on this concert), captures much of the trio’s glorious sound and unique musical artistry, a live performance adds immeasurably to our appreciation of their vocal virtuosity and ability to communicate with their audience.
Unlike the enormously popular and successful Anonymous 4, with whom this group will inevitably be compared, these singers seem to be more concerned with a sonority defined by collectivity rather than uniformity. In other words, with Trio Mediaeval you easily can discern who is singing which part, and the group’s sound is determined and enhanced by a blend of voices with remarkably similar timbres but with distinctly different ranges. It’s a fine distinction, and one that’s difficult to detect on a recording; but in a concert it’s impossible not to be impressed with the three singers’ easy interaction and seamless way they weave lines among and between each others’ parts so that the sound just floats and spins and flows in unencumbered streams. And the intonation! Is there such a thing as perfect intonation? Look no further–Anna Maria Friman, Torunn Østrem Ossum, and Linn Andrea Fuglseth not only will convince you but will leave you in breathless wonder as they easily tackle everything from ancient monody to the most modern, fearsome dissonances.
No small part of the success of this concert was the programming, which combined anonymous 13th-century selections and the 14th-century Tournai Mass with several modern works, some of which (such as the Bryars, the Moody, and two pieces by Andrew Smith) were composed for Trio Mediaeval. Regardless of the temporal distance between the various compositions, stylistically everything fit together well because the writing–some of it frighteningly difficult in its technical demands–is so magnificently attuned to the particular voices and their possibilities as unaccompanied instruments. Among the highlights were Andrew Smith’s dazzlingly colorful Ave Maria (written in 2000) and a sequence of highly original pieces by Piers Hellawell–among them On Black and White an unforgettably virtuosic duet that alto Torunn Ossum and soprano Anna Maria Friman made seem as smooth and easy as breathing–but left the audience rather short of breath! The trio spread out around the sides and back of the chapel for the 13th-century Italian monophonic laude Oi me lasso, at one point astounding the audience by sounding like one voice echoing across and around the church walls. Moody’s Words of the Angel was sung to great effect from the back of the chapel. Although a few wilting souls left at intermission, most stayed for the whole sweltering evening–and no one was disappointed. If you get a chance to hear Trio Mediaeval in concert–don’t miss it. Heat and all, this was one of the more pleasant musical experiences I’ve had in years–and the enthusiastic applause and many excited comments I heard afterward confirm that I wasn’t alone.
–David Vernier
