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<docID>340020</docID>
<postdate>2025-03-10 12:22:00</postdate>
<headline>Musical pilgrimage gets Song Company back on track</headline>
<body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-340021" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250309-Song-Company-Finisterre-15.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p>
<caption>The Song Company. Photo: Dalice Trost</caption>
<p><span class="kicker-line">Music / Journeying to Finisterre, The Song Company. At Wesley Uniting Church, March 9. Reviewed by <strong>GRAHAM McDONALD</strong>.</span></p>
<p><strong>It has been a tumultuous couple of years for The Song Company with artistic and management changes, with some adventurous programming choices and declining audiences. </strong></p>
<p>The good news is that with this concert to open its 2025 season it would seem to have got back on track with this cleverly programmed concert by soprano Any Moore, co-artistic director of the ensemble. It is based around the idea of pilgrimage, especially that of the various Caminos de Santiago across Spain.</p>
<p>The program was conceived as an uninterrupted flow blending Spanish and Portuguese sacred and popular music from the medieval and renaissance with a leavening of contemporary music. The seven voices of the Song Company were augmented for three songs by the ANU Chamber Choir, which added some extra body to those works.</p>
<p>The music ranged from some simple medieval monophonic works fancied up with percussion and a mix of voices to glorious polyphonic church music from the renaissance of four to seven parts. In the 18 works performed were five contemporary pieces including a fascinating reworking of a motet of Tomas Luis de Victoria by Australian composer Joe Twist.</p>
<p>As we have come to expect from The Song Company, the singing was flawless with notable contributions from soprano Susannah Lawergren, soaring on the high notes and tenor Timothy Reynolds, whose phrasing defined several of the renaissance motets. And that is not to downplay the musicianship of the other five members who all added memorable moments along the way.</p>
<p>It is only occasionally that you donâ€™t want a concert to finish. This was 70 minutes of uplifting, thoughtfully put together music and I realised as final work faded away that I could have quite happily sat on the unforgiving pews of Wesley and have them repeat the entire concert.</p>
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