Weary
of the aesthetic tyranny of conductors and eager to pursue a repertoire - any
repertoire - of their own choosing, the founding members of the Intermedii vocal
ensemble first began meeting in 1994 in parking lots and buses on their way to and
from gigs with other chorale ensembles, notably La Psallette de Lorraine and
the Ensemble Vocal du Luxembourg. A few isolated uprisings - a
quartet performance of Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer in a friend's
living room, some impromptu Christmas soirées - firmed their resolve. At
a powwow in the Luxembourg Conservatoire cafeteria, Intermedii was
formed.
The name Intermedii,
drawn from the tradition of musical interludes performed at intervals in the
Medici court, had first belonged to a small ensemble in England, founded by Chris
Vigar. It struck the fledgling group in Luxembourg as sounding the
right note of lightness and flexibility, and so Intermedii Mark II was born.
There followed a series of a cappella concerts featuring every kind of
repertoire - madrigals, folk songs, jazz and spirituals mingling with Renaissance and
contemporary sacred motets and 20th-century part songs. His Excellency Nicholas
Elam, then British Ambassador to Luxembourg, presented
them in a series of intimate (sometimes royal) dinner-soirées in the Embassy residence,
performing madrigals and part songs between the main course and the
cheese. Nick Elam's sponsorship - or midwifery, as he himself was fond of
calling it - of the group has been sustained by his
successors, William Ehrman, Gordon Wetherell and James Clark.
Over
the years, Intermedii has performed in a wide variety of contexts,
singing in full period costume for the Rodemack Fête médiévale,
performing at châteaux and dinner clubs, semi-staging the popular one-act opera
Amahl and the Night
Visitors illustrated with projected slides of art works, performing at
choir festivals in France, and presenting carol concerts each Christmas, either
a cappella or, with Britten in the programme, accompanied by Geneviève
Conter's harp.
Intermedii rarely meets in parking garages these days, preferring to cook
up new ideas over dinners in each other's homes or at late-night-pizza planning
sessions. Their rehearsal technique is strictly democratic, with all members
contributing - often volubly - to discussions of interpretation and
repertoire. They perform without a conductor, concentrating instead on subtle
visual cues and their own 16 ears. Despite their wildly varied backgrounds -
from professional brass-players raised in the American band program to cathedral
choir-school graduates raised in ruffs - Intermedii has grown over
the years into a tight-knit group, socially and personally - which perhaps
contributes to the strong sense of musical union that imbues their performances.
At least on a good night.
