Laudonia: The Grand Tour
St Cecilia’s Hall - 02/09/23
We are fortunate in Scotland to have three of the top early music sopranos in the world, Lorna Anderson, Mhairi Lawson and Susan Hamilton, and Susan’s new project, Laudonia, has just begun its first tour, aptly named ‘The Grand Tour’, starting in Melrose on September 1st, and continuing to Edinburgh, Dunkeld, Inverness, Aberdeen and London in the course of the week.
I caught up with Laudonia on its second concert, in St Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh on Saturday night. Susan and I go back a long way, to the 1990s, when we were both working on a series of concerts led by Phillippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent, in Belgium. We have collaborated many times since, often in the Dunedin Consort, which Susan co-founded with Ben Parry in 1996, and notably in Bach’s ‘Matthew Passion’ which we recorded in 2008 for Linn Records.
Laudonia (the Latin for Lothian, in the eastern part of which Susan lives), a co-project with Austrian Arts Manager, Christoph Crepaz, announces its appearance with a stunning programme of music built around the Grand Tour undertaken from 1697-1699 by the celebrated Scottish judge, politician and composer, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd Baronet (1678-1755). Having gone to Leiden University to study Law, after preliminary studies at Glasgow University, Sir John, like many aristocrats before and since, embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe, taking in several of the great cities noted for their culture both recent and ancient, ending up in Rome, where he spent 15 months, and returning to Scotland via Paris.
Where Sir John’s Grand Tour differs from the norm is in the way he used his musical excellence to infiltrate the highest levels of society, most notably the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I in Vienna. The Emperor was himself a skilled musician, and a great patron of the arts, in between fighting several wars, during his long reign from 1658-1705. Sir John became personally acquainted with the Emperor, being invited to his own private opera, and this was typical of the way this clever young Scotsman travelled around Europe. When he arrived in Rome, he managed to receive frequent lessons from two of the greatest composers and virtuosi of the day, Arcangelo Corelli and Bernardo Pasquini.
Laudonia’s concert was built around this Grand Tour and featured some of the music Sir John would have heard on his travels, along with one of his own most important compositions, the Cantata ‘Leo Scotiae Irritatus’, a stirring paean to the ultimately disastrous Darien Scheme. The ensemble comprises a mixed international group of superb baroque specialists, a quartet of strings (two violins, cello and violone), theorbo and harpsichord, with obligato trumpet and Susan’s soprano voice.
They started with Johann Rosenmüller’s cantata, ‘O Felicissimus Paradysi Aspectus’ (Oh most happy sight of Paradise), for soprano, trumpet, strings and continuo. After a scandal in Leipzig, Rosenmüller (1619-84) relocated to Venice, where he established a better reputation as a composer. This cantata expresses the singer’s wish to be with God, and after a breathy start, when Susan was getting used to the dry acoustic of St Cecilia’s Hall, Laudonia settled into a fine rendition of this interesting piece, featuring the splendid trumpet playing of Martin Patscheider, from Austria. With enormous skill and an effortless style, Martin thrilled us throughout the concert with playing of refined elegance and perfect intonation, on a baroque trumpet. The musical interplay between Susan and Martin was a special feature of the evening.
After a splendid account of Draghi’s harpsichord Suite in A Major, played by the wonderful John Kitchen, Laudonia entertained us with a Cesti cantata for voice and violins, and Corellli’s Sonata a Quattro in D Major, with more excellent trumpet playing by Martin Patscheider.
After the interval, we heard Sir John Clerk’s hymn to the ill-fated Darien Scheme, ‘Leo Scotiae Irritatus’, a marvellous piece of propaganda, with words by Clerk’s friend, Herman Boerhaave. Laudona fair gave it laldy, as they say in Panama! After another excellent harpsichord solo from John, and a Trumpet song by Daniel Purcell (brother of the more famous Henry), the brilliant Croatian violinist, Bojan Čičić, played the amazing violin sonata, ‘La Follia,’ by Corelli, a set of 23 variations. Not only was Bojan’s playing exceptional, but the Cello of Lucia Capellaro and the Theorbo of Jamie Akers were similarly virtuosic.
The full ensemble, including Aaron McGregor (violin) and Rick Standley (violone), came together for an extraordinary work by the little-known Allesandro Melani (1639-1703), ‘Qual Mormorio Giocondo’ for soprano, trumpet, two violins and basso continuo. This is a fantastic work with which to close any concert, and Laudonia played it to the hilt, the interplay between Susan and Martin being especially memorable.
A full house in St Cecilia’s Hall gave the concert a rousing reception, and any of our readers who can, should go along to the concerts in the rest of the tour, in Dunkeld, Inverness, Aberdeen and London.
