On Sunday, March 18, 2018, a party took place at Cultuurcentrum Vredeberg in Lier. "The Party" is a musical ensemble consisting of Hendrickje van Kerckhove, soprano, Bart Rodyns, harmonium, Eliot Lawson, violin, and Lode Leire, double bass.
The name of the ensemble refers to a 19th-century group of musicians around the musical couple Lemmens-Sherrington, whose husband was Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, founder of the Lemmensinstituut, and his wife Helen Sherrington, an English concert and opera soprano. This group toured England in the 1860s with an entertaining and varied program. That was exactly what the current Party in Lier also had in mind. The current ensemble plays on instruments from around that time and draws both from the repertoire of the historical ensemble and from their own arrangements.
The program began with a piece of Händel: four flowing movements from different works that alternated between purely instrumental and ensemble with soprano. In particular, the way in which soprano Hendrickje van Kerckhove with a supple voice could perform the beautiful baroque ornamentations in the aria Tornami vagheggiar from the opera Alcina made an impression.
In instrumental terms, violinist Eliot Lawson scored highly with a virtuosic and spirited Prelude & Allegro "in the style of Pugnani" by Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962). The Elegia by Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), sometimes called the Paganini of the double bass, for harmonium and double bass, on the other hand, appealed to me less due to the somewhat flat interpretation and some intonation problems of the double bass. Also Händel's Passacaglia (HWV 432) could not quite convince despite the virtuosic arrangement for violin and double bass and passionate playing, due to technical issues.
That music doesn't always have to sound grandiose was proven by The Party with three songs by Lemmens (1823-1881) that were performed unpretentiously but stylishly by the soprano. Things become somewhat more serious in Offertoire in C by César Franck (1822-1890), sensitively performed by Bart Rodyns on the pressure-wind harmonium with beautiful rubatos and skillful use of the pedals for dynamics. Equally sensitive and deeply felt was Liebesleid performed by violinist Lawson, who suffered not only from love but also from the flu and had to manage with the necessary paracetamol pills. Harmonium and bass supported him excellently in this sorrow.
With the Romanza O quanto volte by Vicenzo Bellini (1801-1835), Van Kerckhove proved that she is also master of the bel canto. The ensemble concluded as it began: with Händel. The aria Lascia ch'io pianga from the opera Rinaldo: Let me weep, this time not from sorrow but from such joy of music-making.
- WHAT: The Party
- WHO: Bart Rodyns, Hendrickje van Kerckhove, Eliot Lawson, Lode Leire
- WHERE: Cultuurcentrum Vredeberg, Lier
- WHEN: March 18, 2018
- Photo: m.t.