Cries - "L'Écrit du Cri"- Ensemble Jannequin

Wigmore Hall 24 July 2010

This final concert of the season was by way of being post-launch event for a CD, in which the Ensemble, led bycharismatic counter-tenor Dominique Visse, let their hair down in music very different from their usual early music repertoire.

As a Wigmore Hall concert it was unsatisfactory; the items were mainly raucous and suitable for a more informal venue and, perhaps, one where the audience might be drinking convivially.

That said, it is not meant to undermine the high professionalism of the group; the singers were individually and collectively good, and the accompaniments by piano, portableorgan and double bass for Victorian items were clever and put over very well.

The programme book for this overlong concert included texts in French only; the 2009 Harmonia Mundi CD "L'Écrit du Cri" was on sale at Wigmore Hall.

Peter Grahame Woolf