Cover image: Rendez-vous. Supplied

“Rendez-vous” HIP Company

Government House Ballroom, Saturday 4^th October

Viola da gamba player Krista Low takes the microphone half-way through tonight’s concert and recalls how she and Jenny Eriksson spent mornings during a creative retreat in WA’s Southwest, playing the viola da gamba music of Marin Marais’, drinking wine and taking “cold swims”. It’s a lovely insight into the obviously blissful musical relationship these musicians share with each other.

Our concert begins with one of several airs de coeur (a kind of strophic love song popular in the royal court of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). A contemplative and sophisticated Tommie Andersson enters the stage from the back of the Government House Ballroom playing his own arrangement of Antoine Boësset’s “Our free and content spirits” on the lute as Susie Bishop begins to sing on stage, gradually joined by the full ensemble; Bonnie de la Hunty singing with Bishop in alternate verses, Jenny Eriksson and Krista Low joining with Viola da Gamba, and a graceful Sarah Papadopoulos on violin. It’s a gentle and lullaby-esque start to an interesting program of lower-paced and intimate instrumental pairings.

My beautifully presented one-page program gives me a repertoire list and a brief bio of each group presenting tonight’s concert, with a QR code to a more extensive program. Thank you HIP for doing this, at the risk of sounding old and grumpy, as much as I acknowledge independent companies’ need to cut costs, I relish the opportunity to not look at my phone during a live performance.

Studying the more extensive digital program notes by Eriksson post-concert reveals that the performance is “drawing inspiration and repertoire from the story of Marin Marais and his teacher Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe—as told in the movie Tous les matins du monde” and this makes things a little clearer to me as I digest the rich concert offerings from last night. The concert is a short little jewel showcasing elegance and serenity of the French Baroque, rather than the fire and more obvious showiness of Italian or even German repertoire of the same period, and as a result my initial thoughts of a slight lack of pace and contrast amongst particularly the vocal numbers, are moderated.

A statuesque and ever classy de la Hunty and serenely thoughtful Bishop sound glorious together. Their voices blend so harmoniously, with some welcome fruity pops of skilful agility within their ornamentation. The airs de coeur are musically highly refined but containing ripe textual references to birdsong, nature, ardent souls and urgings to — wink, wink— “Allons sur la verdure”, (“Let us go upon the greenery”). They are charming and deceptively passionate songs, and moments where de la Hunty and Bishop harmonise are concert highlights.

I particularly appreciated the opportunity to hear the duetting viola da gamba in Sainte-Colombe’s Concerto for two equal viols and again (with skilful theorbo accompaniment) in Marais’ Suite for two viols. It’s special to hear this impressive instrument played in duet formation with such aptitude. The duelling bass voices tumble over each other at turns dolefully, then playfully, and Eriksson and Low display a real comradery in their playing that is immediately obvious to the audience and delightful to witness.

Overall, the concert is lovingly and skilfully performed by a pleasing-to-see multi-generational ensemble. Eriksson again remarks in her notes upon the Marais Project’s appreciation of HIP Company’s youthful and skilled approach to repertoire that clearly uplifts and elevates all of them, collectively. As HIP Company celebrate their fifth anniversary together, they are beginning to hit an impressive artistic stride, hinting at more exciting things to come. Long may their collaborations continue.