NOTEWORTHY/Chestnut Hill LOCAL by Michael Caruso for 4/9/2009

I attended two choral concerts over the past two weekends. Each program was fascinating in its own way. Each received an admirable performance. And each took place in a venue that sparked my thoughts on the how important the acoustical setting is for a choral/instrumental concert.

The first on the list, heard on Friday, March 27, was an all-Mozart program performed by the Ama Deus Ensemble under the baton of Valentin Radu. The second, heard on Sunday, April 5, featured David Hayes and the Philadelphia Singers in a program entitled “Tapestries of Sound” and featured a roster of choral works written by major and not-so-major composers.

What particularly fascinated me with these two concerts was my initial reaction regarding the venue for each. Radu and the Ama Deus Ensemble performed in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. Hayes and the Philadelphia Singers gave their concert in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square. My first response was to think that the venues should be reversed. Surely Ama Deus’ concert should take place in a church since two of its three works were written to sacred texts. Just as certainly, the Singers’ program should be heard in a regular concert hall or theater, since only a small portion of its set of pieces was religious in nature.

That initial reaction turned around on hearing the two concerts, and the specifics of each program was the reason for this turn-around. Neither Mozart’s early Motet: “Exsultate, Jubilate,” K. 165, nor the virtually ultimate Missa da Requiem, K. 626, are truly liturgical works. Even the Requiem Mass could never legitimately be used for anything less than a major state funeral. Only a movement or two from within the overall score could ever be used in an actual Mass of Christian Burial because most of the movements are far too long in length, flamboyant in style and complex in texture for regular liturgical use. Even the far shorter motet would be mostly inappropriate because of its operatic extravagance. Plus the use of a full orchestra the size of that which supports Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni – actually rather similar in tone to the Requiem Mass – could never fit into the available space in anything less grandiose than a baroque cathedral.

I initially worried that the Perelman’s relatively bright, crisp acoustics would be too dry for a concert featuring a full chorus and chamber orchestra, especially considering how badly a recent performance there of Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem had sounded. But I had failed to give credit to Valentin Radu’s ability to judge the singing and playing right then and there in the theater. He elicited from both singers and instrumentalists music-making that filled the house.

The Singers’ concert, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, provided me with my first opportunity to hear a concert performed in Holy Trinity Church since its recent renovations. Although the alterations have somewhat denuded its sanctuary of any hint of Anglican liturgical usage, they have made it a better performance space by opening up the area in the front of the church. The renovations have also brought Holy Trinity’s Victorian-Romanesque splendor back to its original glory.

Acoustically the church remains a sonic wonder. Its reverberation time is still long so it proffers a warm resonance that surrounds the listener with glowing sounds you can virtually feel as well as hear. It’s the perfect venue for the kind of virtuosic choral music the Singers performed. Now that there is more room for instruments to accompany a good-sized choir, one can only hope that Holy Trinity Church will once again be a prime venue for choral concerts, especially on Sunday afternoons when the sun streams in through its multi-colored stained-glass windows to stunning visual effect.

MOZART’S ‘REQUIEM’

Somewhat similarly to the Missa da Requiem of Giuseppe Verdi -- heard over the same weekend in concert by Alan Harler, the Mendelssohn Club and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia – Mozart’s Requiem Mass doesn’t strictly adhere to the traditions of sacred choral writing. Its instrumental component is far more symphonic than those in even the other Mass settings Mozart (or the contemporaneous Franz Joseph Haydn) composed. The vocal and choral style is also more dramatic than liturgical and hearkens back to the character of Don Giovanni in manner.

Yet it remains a towering work, and not merely because Mozart died in 1791 before completing the score, but because of its own inherent musical worth. The project of completion fell to his student, Franz Xaver Sussmayr. His claim that he was following Mozart’s sketches is substantiated by the lack of his ever having composed another worthwhile score. Like Verdi decades later, Mozart set portions of the Latin text of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead with an unerring touch for particularity and specificity. One hears the voice of an individual, both frightened and faithful, in all the solo and ensemble sections; one feels the terror and conviction of the body of the faithful in the choruses.

Valentin Radu caught the personal fervor of the music in all its varied expressions. One felt as much as heard the music, and that was made especially possible because so much of the singing and playing was excellent in caliber. Soprano Andrea Lauren Brown was especially affecting in her solos. Mount Airy mezzo Jody Kidwell and tenor Kenneth Garner (a longtime soloist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill) also sang well. The chorus proffered impressive power, clear diction, broadly based dynamics, sharp rhythms, and emotional delineation through the text. The orchestra played with style and passion, all under Radu’s demanding baton. Brown was also admirably heard in the motet prior to intermission. [emphasis added]

SONIC TAPESTRIES David Hayes explained his choice of music by referring to the term “circular” regarding both music and texts. It was both helpful in establishing parameters and unnecessary because the chosen scores were both substantial and complimentary – and explained their connections all by themselves.

The concert opened with Charles Martin Loeffler’s By the Rivers of Babylon and was followed by Claude Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orleans and Rose Lee Finney’s Spherical Madrigals in the first half. After intermission, we heard Johannes Brahms’ Vier Gesange fur Frauenchor, William Schiman’s Carols of Death and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning. It was, indeed, a tapestry of sound in that harmonic, contrapuntal and developmental styles of broad variety were stitched together to form a single program that worked splendidly to show the broad array of choral music and the impressive interpretive and technical agility of Greater Philadelphia’s only professional choir led by its music director.

I was especially impressed by the singing in the Schuman, Finney and Copland. With but a very few exceptions, pitch was pure even when the choir was unaccompanied. Diction was always crystalline. Balance between the various sections and overall blend were expertly maintained, and dynamics ranged from smoothly projected louds to admirably sustained softs. Mezzo Maren Montalbano was particularly memorable as the soloist in the Copland.

Most pleasing was David Hayes’ conducting. In some recent outings, I’ve found his interpretations, while always technically impressive, lacking in personal involvement and emotional commitment. Not so Sunday afternoon. He was on top of every word and note and drew from his choir some of the best singing I’ve heard from them in several seasons. It’s the kind of music only a professional choir can sing, and sing it beautifully they did!

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