Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The last time I heard this ensemble, a number of its better singers were taking the semester off to unfortunately noticeable effect. But most of the A-team was back in place for this concert, titled "A Musical Journey" and billed as the group's "pre-European tour concert."
Founding conductor Craig Fields led the group through the most varied program I've heard from the Master Chorale, ending with a bring-down-the-house set of spirituals.
How good they were could be judged over and over when Fields led the group into hushed pianissimo passages that smoothly decrescendoed down to nothing. The average amateur choir finds it difficult to produce full tone and a lush blend at almost no volume, but the chorale pulled it off repeatedly Saturday night. It was a sumptuous experience.
The Master Chorale began with three Renaissance motets by Monteverdi and Josquin de Prez, singing not at the front but surrounding the audience along the perimeter of the nave so the polyphonic "stereo" effects could be clearly heard.
All three got beautifully musical performances, the Monteverdi with organ accompaniment and the Josquin done a capella.
Next was a pleasant but not particularly memorable setting of the 23rd Psalm by Carl Nygard that featured John Rutteresque melodies. The a capella "Os justi meditabur sapientiam" of Anton Bruckner, by contrast, is one of that composer's greatest choral works and got a fine performance.
The first spiritual of the night was an arrangement by William Dawson of "Soon Ah Will Be Done," in a hushed minor key with contrasting boisterous passages that built to a rousing finale on the words "I'm going to live with God."
Franz Biebl's setting of the "Ave Maria," interspersed with section of the Angelus, has become phenomenally popular with choral groups over the past five years. Though the program notes identified it as a late 19th-century work, it was actually written around 1960 and has become the signature piece of the San Francisco-based male chorus Chanticleer.
Unfortunately the piece got a not particularly successful rendering Saturday night, with uncertain entrances by the men early in the piece and what sounded like some unambiguously wrong notes in spots by a few male singers.
The first half of the concert ended with Howard Hanson's setting of the Walt Whitman poem "Song of Democracy," accompanied on piano by James Bryant.
After the interval was "Ubi caritas," the first and most popular of Maurice Durufle's "Four Motets on Gregorian Chant Themes." No other 20th-century composer was able to harmonize plainchant as deftly as Durufle, and this short piece got a lushly beautiful performance from the Master Chorale. Almost as impressive was the "Alleluia" of Randall Thompson--both pieces ending on dramatically hushed passages.
The concert ended with four familiar spirituals and "Blow Ye the Trumpet," a section from Kirk Mechem's 1991 opera "John Brown." Bass Bud Brown soloed during the famous Norman Luboff arrangement of "Deep River."
The audience got a pleasant surprise in the finale when Craig Fields turned around and himself sang a dynamite solo in a kick-out-the-jams version of "Ain't Got Time to Die," which brought the crowd to its feet in an immediate standing ovation.
It's probably a good thing that Fields so rarely sings with the group, because he outshines everybody else in the Master Chorale. He was tremendous in this number, his big baritone filling up the nave all by itself, and he sent the crowd out to the parking lot humming and snapping their fingers.
by CNB