Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240124
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHORAL SOCIETY GARNERS PRAISE FOR PERFORMANCE OF BACH MASS

If there was any disappointment in their presentation of Bach's great Mass in B Minor, it was the small size of the audience, which filled only about half the hall.

It was especially interesting to hear a local production of the Bach B-minor Mass at this time, when the early-performance-practice movement has changed everyone's thinking about this and all other baroque composers. Sandborg conducted a Bach that was clearly not a purist's early performance version. Among other things, he had a large chorus and the orchestra musicians played modern instruments and used modern bowing techniques.

However, this was a performance that plainly owed some of its spirit to the authentic-performance-practice movement. Sandborg used an orchestra of smaller baroque dimensions, and throughout the Mass there was a pleasing clarity and lightness of line that would have been recognizable to the great Johann Sebastian.

Some purists might also have been disappointed to discover that the society delivered a truncated version of the Mass, without the Credo and Osanna sections. There is good precedent for this, however, because this huge work is rarely if ever performed whole in the context of an actual worship service. Bach himself realized that he would never hear the work performed in its entirety in his own lifetime.

The five soloists included sopranos Marianne Sandborg and Elaine Fields, contralto Diane Thornton, tenor Michael Henry and bass Philip Sargent. Marianne Sandborg worked an especially hard night, rejoining the soprano section whenever she was not soloing.

The finest solo vocal performances came from Sandborg and Thornton. The contralto in particular had excellent control and expression. Her version of the "Qui sedes" was suffused with a quiet sense of pleading entirely appropriate to the words. Elaine Fields, with a soprano instrument darker than that of Sandborg, delivered a beautiful "Laudamus te." Fields was accompanied in her aria by violinist Benedict Goodfriend, whose big tone and bravura playing earned some admiring comments.

As always with Jeffrey Sandborg, the strongest parts of this performance came in the full choral sections, which featured a blend and a sense of ensemble that were impressive. The final results apparently pleased the audience, which responded with a standing ovation and particularly loud shouts of "Bravo!"