‘Cappella Amsterdam led by Daniel Reuss sang the premiere of Mathilde Wantenaar's stunning new choral work La noche oscura del alma (or Dark Night of the Soul) yesterday. The concert took place in the sold-out main hall of the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ during the tenth edition of the Cello Biennale Amsterdam, which was founded in 2006.
Wantenaar: 'Inspired by the other piece on the programme - Sonnengesang by Gubaidulina, with a text by the 13th-century Italian mystic, poet and monk Saint Francis of Assisi - I found a beautiful poem by the 16th-century Spanish mystic, poet and monk Saint John of the Cross: La noche oscura del alma. Both texts are spiritual in nature and I thought the Sonnengesang (or Song of the Suns) on one side and La Noche oscura del alma (or Dark Night of the Soul) on the other, would bring both coherence and contrast to the concert.'
For her new work, Wantenaar has chosen three (love) poems by three poets in three different languages. The work begins subdued with a sonorous choral sound through which Johannes Moser's cello tones weave like an aeolus harp. Unlike the two preceding works by Anton Arenski and Rudi Tas with Kristina Blaumane on cello, instrument and voices now immediately form a unified whole. Moser succeeds perfectly in subtly fusing his cello timbre with the choral sounds at every moment.
After the breathtakingly subdued first movement, the performance of French poet Louise Labé's Sonnet 14 followed like an incantatory monk's chant. Wantenaar had several choristers solo here, which immediately changed the atmosphere. While the first movement sang of love for God, it was now the lost happiness of a worldly love. The cello cried out the sadness and Moser also impressed with his extremely variable vibrato.
The apotheosis of this love triptych took place in the third movement for which Wantenaar had chosen Alexandr Pushkin's short poem Night. Reuss now had his singers deploy and disappear in succession: ‘my verses ... streams of love, infused with you.’ With boisterous applause, the audience received this particularly layered and moving new composition, which will be performed two more times after the premiere, with soloist Pieter Wispelwey.
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Asked for her reaction to a criticism of an earlier work, Wantenaar said prior to this concert: ‘I am glad that attention is being paid to it. Together we need to bring attention to the beautiful, yet niche world of classical music and keep it alive!' She certainly succeeded. As I left the music building, I heard someone say: ‘Tonight we really experienced something special!’ I couldn't agree more.”
Read the entire review by Michael Klier here.
Listen to La Noche Oscura del Alma here.
Photo by Wenneke Savenije.