MUSIC REVIEW : Early Gems Shine, Dispassionately, Under Ensemble

Unlike the marketing bonanza of last year’s Mozart bicentennial, the 1992 Columbus quincentennial does not look promising for symphony orchestras or opera companies. Symphonic music is clearly post-Columbian, and only the most obscure composers, e.g. Alberto Franchetti and Darius Milhaud, have lionized the 15th-Century Italian explorer in operatic guise.

But for early-music performers, the quincentennial is a gift from heaven. As the great era ofEuropean exploration dawned, Western Europe’s Renaissance musical tradition had achieved its apogee.

Sunday evening at San Diego’s First United Methodist Church, the Early Music Ensemble of San Diego presented a rich sampling of sacred and secular music from the time of Columbus. Although the five-member vocal ensemble’s concert was unusually short--a mere 68 minutes including intermission and encore--its 22 pieces explored a range of musical types from the period.

True to its 20-year track record, the five-member Early Music Ensemble sailed through its program with unflappable finesse: clean attacks, elegantly balanced ensemble, supple phrasing and deft textual accent. They enjoyed volleying the catchy repetitions of Josquin Des Prez’s witty song about the cricket, “El Grillo,” as much as they relished the complex counterpoint of an anonymous Marian hymn “Alma Redemptoris Mater” from a Valladolid manuscript. (Columbus spent his final years in the Spanish coastal city of Valladolid.)

The ensemble unearthed several gems for their Columbus theme, including the somber but haunting motet “Versa Est In Luctum” by Francisco De Penalosa, a composer from the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and “Viv’ El Gran Rey,” a spirited anonymous vocal fanfare in praise of the royal couple who sponsored Columbus.

Though historically unrelated to the Columbus theme, “Gloria in Excelsis,” a portion of Guillaume Dufay’s Mass built on canonic ostinatos (short musical reiterations), demonstrated a curiously prescient 15th-Century minimalism, and Dufay’s motet “Ave Regina Coelorum” proved that sweet, close harmonies were cherished long before the Inkspots.

For all of the ensemble’s fluency, its Sunday concert suggested a certain world-weary detachment and an unseemly eagerness to get through the program. It also lacked works of larger scope, such as a complete Mass setting by a single composer, for which the period was noted.

Philip Larson’s bass voice sounded as rich as ever, and Elisabeth Marti’s bell-like soprano rang over the group with clarion clarity. But tenor John Peeling was anything but fresh and hovered beneath the pitch too frequently for comfort. Soprano Constance Lawthers and alto Victoria Heins-Shaw completed the roster.

Perhaps the ensemble needs a bigger challenge than a clever topic like the Columbus quincentennial to revitalize its creative juices.