Paul Stanhope, conductor

Slava Grigoryan, guitar

Belinda Montgomery, soprano

A chilly mid-winter’s night was the perfect opportunity to be transported by the Sydney Chamber Choir to more sultry and languid climes.

In their second concert for the year, the choir presented Sacred Songs and Lullabies, a program of old and new Spanish and Australian music, heralding the choir’s tour to Spain in October/November 2009, to appear at the 41st Tolosa International Choral Festival.

The extremely appealing and cleanly balanced program opened with early works by Guerrero and Lobo, well suited to the style and the sound of this elite ensemble. The only hint of discord perhaps being a slight imbalance within the upper soprano section – at least to this listener’s ears.

Guitarist Slava Grigoryan wove his magic and gave a lusciously evocative performance of his transcription of Albéniz’s La Torre Bermeja for solo guitar. This romantic Andalusian work was originally composed for piano and inspired by the Vermillion Tower within Granada’s majestic Alhambra.

Grigoryan was joined by soprano Belinda Montgomery to lead us on a journey to Castile with selections from Granados’s Tonadillas escritas enestilo antiguo – songs written in the antique style. Their musical partnership was close and sensitive to the emotions that needed to ebb and flow. Montgomery was a delight to hear despite the unfriendliness of the opening tessitura to her voice.

The second half of the performance opened with the Australian selections – Sculthorpe’s Autumn Song and Lullaby. Then, the world premiere of Gerard Brophy’s Berceuse for choir and guitar. Unlike Albeniz and Granados, who never composed anything for the guitar (all their guitar works are transcriptions), Brophy is in fact a guitarist. His knowledge of the instrument was an asset in this reinvention of the original a capella version of Berceuse, expanded to include the guitar. This new arrangement was commissioned for the Sydney Chamber Choir by Fr Arthur Bridge AM on behalf of Ars Musica Australis. For Berceuse Grigoryan transformed the guitar into something that might have been an oud – so distinctive was the more Middle Eastern sound he created.

Finally, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Romancero Gitano for choir and guitar (Gypsy Ballads) drew on more of the choristers as soloists, reminding us that singers in small ensembles are often soloists in their own right. – Shamistha de Soysa