By Douglas Neslund
Returning to the friendly
confines of Walt Disney Concert Hall from a very successful tour of London, Paris,
Lucerne and New York City performing the Peter Sellars/John Adams “Gospel
According to the Other Mary” that received critical acclaim, the Master
Chorale’s Maestro Grant Gershon selected the works of two early 20th
century composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Francis Poulenc.
In a finely balanced
program, the audience was treated to Poulenc’s Salve Regina that served to remind us how much we missed these 62
choristers while they were on the road. Maestro Gershon approached the work
with a high degree of sensitivity that allowed the intimate polyphony to work
its magic.
Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor is a finely constructed
work that seeks to evoke a modal and almost Gregorian flavor in the opening Kyrie eleison, with a solo quartet
performing the Christe eleison.
Soloists were soprano Hayden Eberhart, mezzo soprano Michele Hemmings, tenor
Michael Lichtenauer and bass Scott Lehmkuhl. Keeping in mind that Vaughan
Williams wrote the Mass for an Anglican choir of men and boys, Ms. Eberhart was
tasked with replacing a treble and Ms. Hemmings a countertenor, with the effect
of changing the quartet’s original sound completely. Mr. Lichtenauer was able
to accommodate to a less than full-voiced high tessitura and head-tone
production more typical of the English tenor. As a quartet, the four were a bit
less than ideal as regards blend and balance of their various parts.
Although some entrances
were a bit ragged, the choral sections of the Mass were gloriously and antiphonally sung, at times gifting the
audience that wonderful “wall of sound” that we have grown to love and anticipate.
After intermission, Vaughan
Williams’s Five Mystical Songs
offered baritone Abdiel Gonzalez a major solo turn that he advantaged to a
great extent. His ringing high baritone matched the composer’s requirements to
a “t” although some might not prefer his tight, nervous vibrato. Mr. Gonzalez’s musicianship and solid vocal technique
serves him well. Accompanying on the organ was Paul Meier, who adjusted the
instrument’s sometimes overwhelming power to a fine match with the Master
Chorale. Despite the English text so well enunciated by Mr. Gonzalez, the
audience was provided above-the-stage text projection.
By far the audience’s (and
Master Chorale’s) favorite work of the evening was Poulenc’s sometimes bitter
and ironic Figure Humaine (The Face
of Humanity) composed in 1943 during the Nazi occupation of France, which
required the poet, Paul Éluard, to veil his personal venom against the enemy by
couching his lyrics in subtle and oblique language and using a pseudonym or two.
Starting with Bientôt (Soon), Poulenc maintains a
musical low profile, creating while avoiding detection as a partisan, but
breaks the tension with Le Rôle des
Femmes (The Women’s Role). Of particular note is Un Loup (A Wolf) that darkly paints the Nazi presence as predator,
while Un feu sans tache (A flawless
fire) creates a special challenge for singers and music students alike with its
confetti-like leap-note writing, the beauty of which is only revealed in
bringing the different vocal parts together, perhaps a symbol for the
Resistance.
The final movement
entitled “Liberté!” was kept by Poulenc until American troops liberated his
country, and although one might expect an outbreak of major tonalities and
trumpets-and-drums declamatory choruses, Poulenc instead rides the waves of
emotion throughout from ironic to wry hope, from hopeful and finally, to joy,
expressed in the final measures by a four-octave E major chord topped by an
in-altissimo E performed bang on pitch on this occasion by Karen Hogle Brown.
Given the extra measure of energy and passion, it would not be too difficult to
assume that a large portion of rehearsal time went into this work, with
ultimate success in every respect. Welcome home, Master Chorale!
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