Above: Bosch’s triptych, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ was the launching pad for this programme by Luminescence Chamber Singers. Featured image: members of Luminescence Chamber Singers. Image: Creswick Collective.
It is a rewarding, delightful and rich experiential garden to be explored when musical performers and creatives respond to visual arts.
What made this concert by Luminescence Chamber Singers under the guidance of Artistic Mentor Roland Peelman was the many connections to the depth of detail within Bosch’s famous trio of panels. Musically, historically, emotionally, hysterically, comically and lewdly this concert’s fare celebrated, extended, reflected and rejoiced in the power of art, music, philosophy and morality in affecting a viewer or listener.
A simple performance of music surrounding Bosch’s period of creation was delightfully eclipsed in this concept of Creation, creativity, humanity and recreation.. Even though Luminescence vocalists excel in the recreation of vocal music from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the arc of cleverly juxtaposed comment on nature, sin, temptation, control, desire, company and vulnerability were voiced here in timbres various from the twelfth century to now.
The concert’s seventeen separate items formed a lush, energetic tapestry as church music, bawdy stories of nature, lust and love bounced off each other and constantly shift between time frame and musical styles. Two commission works sat beside arrangements for vocal ensemble of contemporary classical works. A stunnung, variegated version of pop music by Norway’s Aurora (the fitting ‘Earthly Delights’) elegantly presented this modern artist’s hard hitting expression of human predicament.
As well as this excursion away from the time of Bosch and composers like josquin des Prez or Orlando di Lassus, a brilliant arrangement by Roland Peelman of comedian Bo Burnham’s cutting song cycle was another worthwhile leap in time we were taken on.This piece, ‘Welcome to the Internet’ from the album Inside dates from the centre of the pandemic years. It was here brilliantly performed, extending the jarring, profane commentary on culture and creation for flawed humans of a new digital world.
The moral lessons in Bosch’s well-known trio of panels- warning God’s newly created humans of indulgence, excess and passion are painted with vivid colours and a plethora of minute details, props and twisted naked torsos. This clever musical trajectory from the chameleon vocal troupe jumped between lush musical tapestries of traditional music from centuries ago and extended techniques plus instrumental like demands on the singers. Breathtaking virtuosity, warm textures and stellar presenation of text, mirth and a range of environments.
Above: Artistic Mentor of Luminescence Chamber Music conducted this concert in the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room. Image: Hilary Wardhaugh.
Precise, fluid and effortless rendering of very challenging works was the order of this concert’s re-creation and re-imagining of the typical concert model to mirrror the warnings and depictions in Bosch’s powerful, notorious description of humans letting it all hang out. The vocal gymnastics and alternation between the imtimate to complex, the tender to profane were presented by the impecccably balance group with seemingly effortless finesse.
As with Bosch’s smooth veneer across ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ with so much suggested movement, teaching or warning in hectic activity deep within it, the Luminescence line up under the direction of Roland Peelman bristled with multi-hued and nuanced atmosphere.
Works selected had a myriad of references, feeling and reactive emphasis in the text. Rich lyricism relating to aspects of gardens, nature, the apple of Eden and the plight of humankind were continually reinforced in the structure and execution of this programme.
The delight to be had in crossovers between texts, musical styles in a performance practice blender was a hoot. The accessible tracing of historical lines of thought from the Latin Mass routine to boundary-pushing wit, near-ridiculous or rude play was quite a trip. Its exquisite evoking of lush gardens, longing for company or food was an ever-changing show with shifting sonic blooms in the peopled reserve of the full Utzon Room.
The response to commission invitations was strong in the concert’s flow as Australians Nicole Murphy and 22 year old emerging composer Archie Tulk brought very different but equally sensual commentary on the lushness of life and human as well as natural environments. These newest works were timeless and vivid and sung with Luminescence’s signature spontaneous-feeling, a capella excellence of execution.
This vocal ensemble we are fortunate to have based in Australia is stylistically elastic, delivering a staggering level of graded nuance, flexibility and fluidity that bloomed so excellently in so many ways in the Opera House venue. The singers were here stretched from a procession soundtrack by Hildegard von Bingen right up to the playful, irreverent miniatures of Frank Nuyts’ XXX Songs. In three brackets of works leaping across centuries, these chamber singers stretch out and back from the the steady beauty of Josquin des Prez. The three ‘Agnus Dei ‘ sections from his bouncing from his Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae act as progressive signposts and an endpoint in the entertaining momentum of this musical pastiche in triptych form.
Any concert is a winner that makes the listener equally crave re-listening to Renaissance polyphony, shock-value musical wit and left-of -centre pop stars such as Aurora. This musical journey pouring forth from the liveliness and decadence of Bosch’s illumination was an example of an electric eclecticism, a concert at the Opera House that united and smashed genres apart.
Roland Peelman and Luminescence led us on an artistically intricate, historically reflective and referential, emotional orgy of impression. This five-star-exceeding, ecstatic musicological morceau, complete with reference to art history created sonic worlds that were atypically blissful.
This is the type of innovation our human longing, our global environment and our craving for excellent performances need right now.
