Music Reviews : La Corte Musical at St. John’s Church

Paradoxically, interpretive license can be the heart of fidelity in medieval music. Performances such as those offered Sunday evening at St. John’s Episcopal Church downtown by La Corte Musical are based as much on hypotheses and intuition as on the pitches that survive in rudimentary notations.

The charismatic San Francisco-based quintet presented a program of zesty, insinuating interpretations of Marian songs from Iberian sources, principally the 13th-Century Cantigas de Santa Maria. What the original sources lack in rhythm, meter and instrumentation, La Corte Musical did not hesitate to supply.

Soprano Susan Rode Morris sang five cantigas, and two hymns from another manuscript, with a bright, clear, pliable voice. She delivered the narrative texts with intelligible vigor, including phrases of almost melodramatic parlando.

Her instrumental backing proved equally supple and varied. Kit Higginson (recorders and psaltery, the medieval zither), Shira Kammen ( vielle and rebec, early fiddles), Cheryl Ann Fulton (medieval harp) and Peter Maund (percussion) played with effective charm, rejoicing in sinuous rhythmic games and alert, assured ensemble.

The instrumentalists had four numbers to themselves, dances based on vocal models, lavishly and imaginatively arranged within admittedly limited means. The players also had opportunity to display fluent virtuosity in featured solos.

This Chamber Music in Historic Sites performance was originally scheduled for the San Gabriel Mission, which has not yet recovered from the October earthquake. St. John’s made a visually cavernous but acoustically supportive replacement site.