Yungchen Llamo’s voice reverberated around Dar Batha Palace yesterday afternoon with the enduring clarity of a Tibetan bell. Before each song Llamo focused inwardly, quietly reciting mantras and then projected her calmness over an audience whose expressions were as blissed-out as if they had just emerged from a week long meditation course.
While Yungchen’s music has the special ability to transport the listener to other times, other places, her spiritual home, Tibet, is the constant destination. You talk with Yungchen these days and you will discover that she has moved on from the days when she won and ARIA award in Australia and was picked up by Peter Gabriel – launching her career. Her Buddhist background has moved centre-stage and she is quick to tell you to... “check your heart and mind rather than your pin number”.
For many years she has performed solo but with a backing band – Jamsheed and Jawan – she appeared slightly musically less secure than her earlier days in Australia. Although this was not Yungchen at her best, her notes still swooped and soared. Her soprano voice like a pure flute was at times flat, but the electronic effects and sampling would have been at home in the funkiest New York night club. However, this nod toward popular influences never overwhelmed the timeless power of her amazing voice. Her impressive tonal range was demonstrated by the ascending notes of a song about September 11, contrasted with another number where she easily reached down into the realms of the deep bass notes.
At the end, following some great audience participation, Yungchen Llamo was given a standing ovation and there was a long queue at the CD counter. “It’s not just her voice,” said one American woman, “It’s the way she communicates through her whole being.”
And a suggestion for those who arrive late. Instead of attempting to squeeze into the crowd, try a seat in the gardens. The acoustics of the palace walls mean it does not matter where you sit and the sound in the garden is as good as a front row seat.
SPAIN FAIL TO SCORE
When your attention wanders from the music to noticing that the soprano’s headset microphone casts a shadow on her face like a pimple, then you know something is wrong. You have not been gripped. Looking around, during the first few songs of Capella de Ministrers concert, I realized I was not alone. People were texting, playing games on their mobile phones, or chatting quietly about the day’s events. One by one those around me stood up and made for the exit.
So what had gone wrong? Since forming in Valencia in 1987 the early music group Capella de Ministrers has built a fine reputation under the leadership of viola da gamba player Carles Magraner. Yet last night their performance of El Llibre Vermell ( a 10 song songbook in Latin, Catalan and Occitan from 13 96) never reached above the clinical. Yes, it was a faithful rendition of the score, but nothing in the choral work reached out to the audience. The Choir de la Generalitat Valencia appeared overawed by their surroundings and rather than embrace the wonderful venue, they retreated.
The early-music instruments played by Capella de Ministrers were of interest yet not once did they or the two fine soloists reach out and pull us into the music. It was prim, it was proper, but with a tinge of elitism that a less formal setting might have discouraged. A little gusto would have gone a long way.
It could well have been the choice of repertoire, but I was not alone in thinking that the venue was the problem. It was easy to imagine that Cappella would have been better suited to the smaller monastic courtyard feeling of the Batha Museum and that Yungchen Llamo would have been lifted by the Bab Makina stage to the heights we know she is capable of.
At the end of the day Tibet 1 Spain 0.
Photographs copyright Suzanna Clarke 2006
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