Carolyn Surrick & Ronn McFarlane: A Star in the East
Carolyn Surrick & Ronn McFarlane

If there's a downside to the seasonal album, it's pretty obvious what it is: when material is tied to one season in particular, it can feel strange listening to it during the other three. In that regard, hearing lutenist Ronn McFarlane and viola da gamba player Carolyn Surrick perform “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in February—even when there's as much snow on the ground now as two months ago—does feel a bit odd. Yet while A Star in the East is Christmas-themed, its creators have also smartly ensured in their curation that the recording registers as something greater than a one-dimensional project. New works by the partners plus traditionals and classical settings help make it a recording that can be enjoyed at any time of the year and appreciated for the consummate musicianship Surrick, McFarlane, and guest Jackie Moran on bodhran and banjo bring to it.

Surrick and McFarlane have enjoyed exceptional individual careers, she well-known for the fifteen recordings she released with her 1998-founded Ensemble Galilei and he recognized as Ayreheart's founder and as a founding member of the Baltimore Consort. In late 2020, the two issued their first collaborative album Fermi's Paradox and, no doubt inspired by the warm reception it received, convened for a follow-up. Each musician possesses a vast pool of experience from which to draw; together, they're capable of tackling material from any time period and part of the world.

And so it is that originals by both and treatments of Bach's “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light” (a brief solo take by Surrick) and Barber's lovely “Sure on this Shining Night” appear alongside familiar tunes such as “Good King Wenceslas” and “Greensleeves.” Fourteen tracks are indexed but the inclusion of medleys means considerably more than fourteen pieces are performed; mention also must be made of the exceptional clarity with which the production has captured the instruments. The artfulness of their playing is captured magnificently throughout.

The imagination the two brought to the selection process extends to presentation. The opening medley, for example, deftly merges Mykola Leontovych's “Carol of the Bells" with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and the 15th-century Burgundian piece “L'homme armé”; even more impressive is the way melodies from the three are woven, with McFarlane voicing the material from one and Surrick the melody from another until the two, now joined by Moran on bodhran, combine for a unison expression. Borders between three countries dissolve in the second medley, with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (15th-century French), “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” (traditional Polish), and “I Saw Three Ships” (17th-century English) blended as artfully into plaintive folk balladry. As familiar as they are, the tender melodies of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” never fail to charm, and memorable too is the duo's touching rendition of the 19th-century American folk hymn “What Wondrous Love is This.”

The originals sound right at home alongside the centuries-old classics. McFarlane's “Grinch on the Run” sounds like something one could imagine booming from an English pub in this or any year, and his “Early Christmas Morning” exudes all the joy one would anticipate. Surrick's “Mizzie Mine” is an especially personal piece, given that it was written with her great-grandmother in mind. Carolyn's love for her elder is audible in every note, and the heartfelt support McFarlane provides is everything a musician could hope for from an accompanist.

February 2022