|
CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW
A Choir Consolidates
May 6, 2001
|
By Anna Carol Dudley
The California Bach Society's celebration of its 30th anniversary culminated fittingly this last weekend in performances of Bach's powerful Mass in B Minor. I heard Sunday's concert at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, where Warren Stewart led a committed, dramatically shaped performance. Tempo and dynamic changes and connections between sections of the Credo were especially well managed, to strong expressive effect.
Stewart has inherited a chorus with a distinguished past as a strong and accomplished community of amateur singers but a recent history of upheaval in membership and identity. It is encouraging to see him forming a solid ensemble again, with the support of professional soloists and orchestral players. His conducting from memory and his illuminating program notes are further marks of his taking hold as music director of the Society.
In such a strikingly polyphonic work as the B Minor Mass, my preference would be for arranging the singers in sections so that Bach's counterpoint is clearly delineated. The grand Kyries and the Qui tollis suffered from the diffused mixed arrangement, as did the closing Dona nobis pacem. I like to hear fugue subjects geographically located, as they are in the orchestra.
Stewart has obviously given a lot of thought to tempi, and mostly I applaud his choices, except where the choir wasn't up to them. The Cum Sancto Spiritu and the Patrem omnipotentem went faster than the chorus could clearly articulate them, and the opening Kyrie and closing Dona nobis pacem were too slow to enable the chorus to sustain and build the long phrases effectively. On the other hand, the Sanctus, which threatened to run away at the beginning, settled into a solid tempo and built up to a satisfying climax. The Laudamus te was just right for soprano Jennifer Ellis and violinist Rob Diggins, both of whom can delight in a fast pace without making it seem hectic. The five soloists, doubling as section leaders, were sopranos Ellis and Catherine Webster, alto Ken Fitch, tenor Scott Whitaker, and bass Hugh Davies. Especially outstanding were the Christe eleison of Webster and Ellis (well matched in vocal quality and style), Ellis' joyful Laudamus te, Whitaker's solo and ensemble work and his secure and expressive undergirding of the tenor section, and Davies' dancing Et in Spiritum Sanctum. From the all-star orchestra assembled for this occasion, particularly impressive were the solo playing of concertmaster Diggins, oboists Geoffrey Burgess and Marianne Rickert-Pfau, and flutist Louise Carslake and the continuo playing of cellist Elisabeth Reed and bassoonist Sally Jackson. (Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University [lecturer emerita] and director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.) ©2001 Anna Carol Dudley, all rights reserved |