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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 14, 1995                   TAG: 9502150036
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHORAL SOCIETY DID RESPECTABLE JOB WITH UNUSUAL MATERIAL

The first thing you noticed about Monday night's Roanoke Symphony Orchestra concert at the Roanoke Civic Center was that it was, for practical purposes, mislabeled. Jeffrey Sandborg actually conducted a Roanoke Valley Choral Society concert with accompaniment by a few RSO percussion players and other guests.

In celebration of Black History Month, the Choral Society and instrumentalists did Robert Ray's "Gospel Mass" and the "African Sanctus" of English composer David Fanshawe. The group turned in respectable but not world-beating performances of the two works, one not notably ambitious and the other extremely difficult.

The "Gospel Mass" was a pleasant but not very memorable work that attempted to bring a black gospel style to the Latin mass text. It contained good solo work by Beth Chapman, JoEllen Famularo and Michael Johnson, not to mention the Choral Society's familiar lush vocal blend.

But nowhere was the piece especially tuneful, nor did it contain the kind of intense emotional highlights that have made some Choral Society performances live for years in the memory. The gently swinging "Acclamation," not a regular part of the mass, was perhaps the best segment.

One aspect of the performance that stands out, though, is the razor-sharp diction of this ensemble. One of Jeffrey Sandborg's professional trademarks is the absolutely clear pronunciation he elicits from any group he conducts, and the text of this work was easily understandable all the way to the back of the hall.

The night's big work was the "African Sanctus," which combined scores of recordings collected by the composer over two decades ago in Africa with the immemorial mass text.

Wickedly difficult in some spots, full of complex polyrhythms and strange chromatic melodies, the piece was impressive in places but in the last analysis failed to coalesce into a strongly coherent whole.

Easily the most effective section was the Bwala dance of Uganda in the opening Sanctus section.

The taped music and sound effects, cued by a technician by computer at the rear of the hall, were sometimes deeply moving and sometimes puzzling. I noticed I wasn't the only one who was continually flipping through the program, trying to find just what it was I was hearing at the moment.

Possibly the most effective of the many exotic sound effects was the Islamic call to prayer that preceded and was heard throughout the "Kyrie." Occasionally the prayer call would precisely hit the dominant note of the Western-sounding chord sung by the choir. During moments like this, listeners got a glimpse of Fanshawe's guiding intuition in the "African Sanctus" - that God is one.

Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a weekday classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.

The work got a good round of applause and a few bravos, and the Choral Society gave their director an unexpected African salute as he took his bows.

by CNB