Music Reviews : Melancholy Songs by I Cantori Ensemble

A program entitled “New Year, New World” would seem to promise a barrage of festive, exuberant sounds, wouldn’t it? Yet Edward Cansino, the compulsively adventurous director of I Cantori, proved otherwise at Occidental College’s Thorne Hall on Saturday night.

Whether Cansino meant it or not, one could interpret I Cantori’s commemoration of the Columbus year as a now-fashionably thoughtful meditation on the mixed effects that Columbus’ visit had on this hemisphere. The seemingly diverse selection of music that Cansino chose, roaming all over the hemisphere, actually blended into a melancholy, enigmatic, inward-looking whole.

Once, a pro-environment message actually came through in a covert manner in George Crumb’s “Night of the Four Moons,” a sparsely laid-out, quietly gripping reaction to the manned lunar landing of 1969 with Kerry Walsh’s cool, dark mezzo-soprano leading the way. Another contemplative piece from that period was Richard Grayson’s “From the Right Hemisphere,” with voices merging, sliding and agitating in a depiction of an Arthur Janov Primal Scream session (remember those?).

Cansino also likes to program things in sandwiches, surrounding Heitor Villa-Lobos’ mysteriously lovely “Distribucao de las Flores” for flute and guitar with two gentle Spanish-flavored vocal works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Later on, Ginastera’s attractively varied Five Argentine Popular Songs, entrusted to Catherine McCord-Larsen’s light, flexible soprano, would be hemmed in by two austere a cappella pieces from Carlos Chavez.

Throughout this interesting mix, the accomplished voices of I Cantori produced exquisitely limpid, beautifully balanced sounds.