THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, October 9, 1994                TAG: 9410090078
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: By MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

CHORALE'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL SEASON STARTS OFF WELL

Even before it paid its singers, Virginia Pro Musica was one of the few local groups that could back its claim to excellence. Now, as the professional McCullough Chorale, the group is even better - though its music-making could be tightened.

With a program of music by Handel, the chamber choir opened its 11th season this weekend at Sacred Heart Church in Norfolk's Ghent. The ensemble's new name pays tribute to the group's founder, conductor and chief spokesman, Donald J. McCullough.

The group has a new sound as well. McCullough has hired singers from Williamsburg and as far away as the Washington area.

Pro Musica's sound was well-blended and well-modulated. The addition of even stronger voices has given the ensemble fresh power. Thanks to three countertenors, the alto section is now half male, and the altos' first entrance was striking.

Handel's Coronation Anthems for King George II look forward to the energy and brilliance of ``Messiah.'' McCullough chose Nos. 2, 4 and 1 for the first half of the program. (Pro Musica also performed these works in 1988). The ``alleluia'' of No. 4 had an infectious bounciness. Running passages at the end of No. 1 were impressive as well.

But while McCullough obviously had control of the singers' tone color and pitch, he paid less attention to rhythm and the stresses and direction of each phrase. At one point in the fourth anthem the top and bottom of the orchestra were not synchronized.

The second half of the program included selections from Handel's operas, oratorios and odes. Bass James Weaver, who is heard frequently with Capriole, was passionate in ``See, the raging flames arise'' from ``Joshua.'' Soprano Billye Brown Youmans and countertenor Kevin Thomas produced some floating notes in their respective arias, ``Eternal source of light divine'' and ``Ombra mai fu.''

The chorus also sang three brief, simple, pretty anthems by the English composer Richard Farrant, who was active in the late 1560s. The encore was the ``Hallelujah'' Chorus. by CNB