THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040286
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
The McCullough Chorale opened its 1995-96 season with a sonic celebration of Renaissance Venice designed to complement the Chrysler Museum's current exhibit, which reunites two paintings by the Italian master Veronese after a 200-year separation.
Venetian music was shaped to a great extent by the places in which it was performed, especially St. Mark's, with its divided lofts from which sound could be flung into and across the wide spaces of the church.
In the Chrysler's Huber Court, the Chorale had a smaller-scale approximation of this setting and effectively used the room to enhance its rich, full-bodied sound.
The acoustics did create a few problems. In very fast-moving music, it was sometimes hard to detect the harmonic motion of the music because of the reverberation. And two sets of madrigals by Monteverdi suffered from the performers being placed too far away from the audience for such intimate works.
In music that called for a massed, blended sound or demanded spatial separation of its parts, the effect was thrilling. Selections by Giovanni Gabrieli and Salomone Rossi, a renowned Jewish composer of the period, were given excellent performances, with sections well-balanced against one another. Director Donald J. McCullough paced the music effectively, allowing the sound to gradually unfold and envelop the audience.
The second half of the concert was less directly related to Venice, being made up of 20th century music. Two Gregg Smith madrigal arrangements were the choral equivalents of Stokowski's awful yet wonderful Bach transcriptions, and the Chorale clearly enjoyed singing them, with some especially lovely soft tones.
Two selections from the group's Grammy-nominated CD of music by Norfolk State University composer Adolphus Hailstork brought the concert to a close, and McCullough rewarded the audience's warm reception with a reprise of Hailstork's ``O Praise The Lord.'' by CNB