For this release entitled
Celebrating Sacred Rhythms,
Naxos have chosen American conductor Joseph Holt who made
his Choral Arts debut conducting the
Misa Criolla.
The Argentine composer and pianist Ariel Ramírez is
widely acclaimed throughout South America for his unique
synthesis of popular and liturgical styles. He is represented
here by his settings of the
Misa Criolla and the
Navidad
Nuestra. The
Misa Criolla is based on South American
folk music and is a setting of the traditional Mass texts,
in Spanish, to the accompaniment of a variety of Andean instruments.
Navidad
Nuestra, set in the north of Argentina, is a depiction
of the Mystery of the Incarnation. Described by its creator,
the missionary Father Guido Haazen, as a “collective improvisation” the
Missa
Luba adapts traditional Congolese melodies and rhythms
to the Latin texts of the Mass. The work includes prominent
parts for African percussion instruments.
Navidad Nuestra (Our Nativity)
Like the
Misa Criolla, Ariel Ramírez composed
Navidad
Nuestra (
Our Nativity) in 1964. For the six
episodes of this Creole folk-tableau with Spanish texts
by Félix Luna (b.1925), the composer availed himself of
dances and songs drawn from the Argentine musical traditions.
Ramírez evokes a wide range of expressions from traditional
Argentine music. Luna’s six poems narrate the universally
known episodes of the Christmas story from the annunciation,
through the birth, the flight to Egypt and Herod’s sacrifice
of the children. Far from the original Bethlehem, Luna
locates the story in the north of his native Argentina.
Ramírez’s original instrumentation includes harpsichord
or piano, guitar, bongos, tenor and baritone solos, chorus,
jingle bells or cascabeles, high drums with sticks and
low drums with hands. The arrangement for this recording
incorporates
two violins in the first two movements, three guitars,
percussion and bass throughout as well as three tenors
in the first,
fourth and sixth movements. Peruvian
tenor, José Sacin performs the solo in the third movement,
and the fourth movement features Carmen de Vicente, one of
the world’s only concert castanet performers.
The rhythmic opening movement
The Annunciation is
given a high spirited performance and the second movement
The
Pilgrimage is poignantly delivered with the male and
female choir being especially effective. In
The Nativity tenor
José Sacin is wonderfully natural and warm. The velvety
tenor voice heard over the female choir and low drum is
marvellously
done. In
The Shepherds movement, the choir and the
three tenors, to the accompaniment of the castanets and guitar
is foot-tappingly rousing. Dominated by guitars and percussion
the fifth movement
The Three Kings has excellent responses
from the choir members. The splendid final movement
The
Flight acquires a compelling, almost meditative, splendour.
Missa Luba
In 1954 the Missionary Father Guido Haazen established
in the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo,
the chorus
Les troubadours du Roi Baudouin. Four years
later, based on the performances of these African singers,
Haazen adapted and arranged the
Missa Luba from their
improvisations. The
Missa Luba adapts traditional
Congolese melodies and rhythms to the five movements of the
ordinary Mass (
Kyrie,
Gloria,
Credo,
Sanctus and
Agnus
Dei) with the text in Latin.
The
Missa Luba is scored for tenor soloist, mixed
chorus, and three percussionists playing the African native
drums, namely the djembe, congas and ngoma drum. The guiro
replaces the gourd or African sakasaka in this recording.
As the sole instrumental force in
Missa Luba, the
percussion carries forward the incisive rhythmic ostinatos
that sustain the melodic discourse, often in responsorial
form between the male and female voices. Reflecting African
popular expression, the musical outcome invites corporeal
movement during worship. Equally idiosyncratic is the improvisational
character of the work, despite being notated, which challenges
performers in the Western tradition. As noted in the preface
to the published score, “if desired this written version
of the Mass may be used as a suitable springboard for those
who will venture upon their own new creation of this original
African Mass.”
For this Naxos recording, contralto Christal Rheams
replaces the tenor solo with her unique improvisations. The
choral arrangement incorporates different combinations of
voices. The final improvisations in the
Agnus Dei are
achieved with the voices creating an inspirational chant
conceived at the moment. The score indicates improvisational
passages for percussion in the
Credo which are brilliantly
performed by the percussion ensemble.
In the opening movement
Kyrie the choir with
the tenors and the percussion take centre-stage. Despite
the best efforts of the American-born contralto Christal
Rheams
this is to my ears pretty uninspiring
music. Dominated by the contralto and the percussion I again
found the
Gloria undistinguished. As in the opening
two movements the
Credo is dominated by the contralto
and the percussion. Written for choir and percussion parts,
the languid
Sanctus only begins to move out of its
slumber at point 01.26 (track 6). In the concluding movement
Agnus
Dei the forces perform in an improvisatory manner providing
a fresh and spontaneous interpretation. Overall I found the
score to the
Missa Luba rather disappointing and unmemorable;
even after several playings. I was left wondering whether
the score is better experienced as participant rather than
listener.
Misa Criolla
The accomplishment of Ariel Ramírez with the
Misa
Criolla is beyond comparison. Over forty years after
its creation in 1964, this Mass is considered one of
the utmost expressions of popular music in Argentina.
It has
transcended international borders to gain worldwide acclaim.
Even Ramírez, a composer with a career of long-standing,
could not have foreseen that it
would become such
a famous work amongst his prolific output comprising compositions
for chorus, voice and piano.
Musically speaking, the
Misa falls into a category
somewhere between strict academic and urban popular but.
Ramírez does not intend to preserve folklore but to achieve
an artistic recreation of folk-derived traits within a
personal compositional style. The
Misa Criolla consists of
musical settings of the
Kyrie,
Gloria,
Credo,
Sanctus,
and
Agnus Dei.
With liturgical texts in Spanish
it is one of the first Catholic Masses to be composed in
a language other than Latin. Each part of the Mass is based
on either traditional Argentine dances or songs. The vidala-baguala
for the
Kyrie, refers to the lyrical vocal form of
Bolivia and northern Argentina.
The Mass is written for tenor, mixed chorus, percussion,
Andean instruments, double bass and harpsichord or piano.
It should be noted that Ramírez is considered today the first
within the ‘nativist’ tradition to introduce the piano
in the performance of traditional music in Argentina. In
this
Naxos recording, however, conductor Joseph Holt utilises
the charango, a small guitar made of an armadillo shell,
with the guitar replacing the keyboard part. The Andean
notched flute, quena and the panpipes, siku, which are
also featured
in this recording, follow the Argentine criollo tradition
where they usually accompany the charango, the guitar and
the bombo.
The
Misa Criolla comes across as an appealing
and inspiring work right from the first bars of the opening
movement
Kyrie. The atmosphere provided by the excellent
performers is electric and at times magical. The three
tenor parts lack the individual character of the acclaimed
performance
by the eminent and charismatic tenor José Carreras, on
his 1987 Philips account, but the collective effect is
thrilling.
The first section of the lively carnival mood of the
Gloria is
dominated by the guitars before the tenors and choir gain
prominence. Alongside the heavy dance elements of the
Credo distinctive
use is made of panpipes. The carnival mood of the
Sanctus features
guitars. The superbly performed closing movement
Agnus
Dei is notable for its dream-like and softly coloured
textures.
Joseph Holt directs the forces of the Instrumental and
Percussion Ensembles and The Choral Arts Society of Washington
with commitment and enthusiasm. There’s no hint of the routine
and the performance draws a wide range of emotional responses
from the listener. The solo singers supply excellent contributions.
The contralto of Christal Rheams has a highly distinctive
timbre and the voice of tenor José Sacin is especially
characterful; the pick of the three tenors.
The sound quality provided by the Naxos engineers is
of a good standard. However on this release texts and translations
are not provided. Texts can be accessed and downloaded online
at
www.naxos.com/libretti/navidadnuestra.htm but
this seems a right fag to have to do. I certainly
don’t want several sheets of A4 paper knocking about my house
and where do I store them. Providing a release without texts
in the booklet notes is penny-pinching, poor presentation
and not a customer friendly practice for a company of Naxos’s
stature.
I just loved the performances of Ramírez’s
Misa Criolla and
the
Navidad Nuestra. A fascinating release that provided
an abundance of pleasure.
Michael
Cookson
Manuel Melendez
(tenor) (Navidad; Criolla) 
