8 May 2022
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Vivaldi’s Gloria, Agatha’s Cantata ★★★★
Australian Chamber Choir, Scots’ Church, May 7
By Tony Way
In a fascinating story of rediscovery, Australian harpsichordist, singer and musicologist Elizabeth Anderson has brought to life the accomplished work of an abandoned handicapped girl from eighteenth-century Venice.
Knowing that Antonio Vivaldi established a highly renowned female choir at the orphanage known as the Ospedale della Pietà, Anderson acted on a hunch that the choristers might also have been composers. With the help of the internet and a friendly librarian, Anderson uncovered Ecce nunc, a cantata by a woman simply called Agata, born without the four fingers of her left hand, who had been left at the orphanage in about 1720.
Performing this music for the first time in nearly three hundred years, the Australian Chamber Choir has revealed a composer who combined technical rigour with expressive warmth. Cast in six short movements, Ecce nunc bears all the hallmarks of the Venetian baroque style from which Anderson has sympathetically borrowed to reconstruct missing material for the solo movements.
In contrast to the calm, lyrical contentment of this new discovery, the program was bookended by two popular expressions of Venetian grandeur: the Magnificat by Francesco Durante (formerly attributed to Pergolesi) and Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, RV 589.
Under the quietly effective direction of Douglas Lawrence, the choir projected a clear, unforced tone throughout, moving with impressive agility when required. A small instrumental ensemble led by violinist Jennifer Kirsner lent scintillating but unobtrusive support, and soloists drawn from the choir sang with joyful assurance.
Providing a welcome oasis of meditation, Christine McCombe’s well structured a cappella work from 2021, Power in Stillness was evocatively sung, benefitting from finely calibrated dynamics and crystalline diction.
Kudos are due to Anderson, Lawrence and the ACC for unearthing Agata’s touching story and allowing audiences to appreciate her lost gem after nearly three long centuries in obscurity.