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CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW
July 29, 2005
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By Bruce Lamott
Thoughts of the rancorous days of “Freedom Fries” were far from the minds of the audience attending the Franco-American love-fest hosted by the Pacific Boychoir Academy at Grace Cathedral on Friday, July 29. Having just been received by the visiting team on their recent tour of France, the boys welcomed two choirs to San Francisco: the Youth Choir and Children's Choir of Greater Paris (Jeune Choeur et Choeur D'enfants d'Île de France), both conducted by Francis Bardot. Together and separately, the choirs delivered a performance that was not only musically impressive but uplifting as well.
Kevin Fox conducted the Pacific Boychoir in the opening set of four challenging works. Mendelssohn's Veni Domine, deftly accompanied by organist Marcia Roy, was sung with precision and clarity, its soaring unisons and sonorous harmonies filling the nave of the cathedral. The unnamed solo ensemble gave variety to the texture, performing with strength and rhythmic security. Tota pulchra es of Duruflé fared less well, its web of polyphonic imitation feeling rushed and unsettled in the reverberant acoustic; the room was more gracious for the chordal texture of Brahms' motet, O bone Jesu. The heightened expressiveness in their singing gave away the fact (confirmed by the announcer) that David Childs' Weep No More, a contemporary piece with a New-Age flavor, was a favorite of the choir. This is an impressive young ensemble — poised and well-trained, with riveted focus on their director and the music.
The French choirs entered with a stirring frisson, processing down the nave to the roaring undulations of Louis Vierne's Carillon played by organist Nicolas Pien. Flag-bearers led the parade with the Tricolor and the Stars and Stripes, followed by lump-in-the-throat performances of The Star-Spangled Banner (in impeccable English) and La Marseillaise. The rest of their program was mostly devoted to French liturgical works.
The Fauré group which opened the program showed the choirs at their finest. The Youth Choir encompasses ages 16 to 25; and the Children's Choir, apparently 10-15; each numbers about 30 singers. A robust Cantique de Jean Racine, ably accompanied by a 12-year-old pianist, was sung with intensity and dynamic contrast. The purity of the responsorial phrases in Tantum ergo created a transcendent atmosphere against the piano arabesques and sustained organ harmonies. Excerpts from the Fauré Requiem included the “Pie Jesu,” delivered with warmth and finesse by a fine boy soprano (uncredited), “Agnus Dei,” and a somewhat square and unyielding “In paradisum.” The cloying progressions of Ave Maria by one “G. Caccini” suggest very un-baroque symptoms of modern harmonic enhancement; whether Caccini or Respighi, however, the soprano soloist and treble choir sang it radiantly. One assumes that Messiaen's Transports of Joy, a virtuosic organ solo exploiting the sonic variety of the cathedral's fine instrument, was programmed to give the young performers a rest; however, they remained in place without access to water or a stretch — an endurance that even adult choirs wouldn't tolerate. This seemed to take its toll in the remainder of the program — essentially an organ recital with chorus, featuring works by organists César Franck and Jean Langlais. The choirs were overwhelmed by Franck's climactic Psalm 150, in which rawness in the tone quality of the men suggested vocal fatigue. Excerpts from Langlais' prickly Solemn Mass showed the fine training of these young musicians; free-floating choral lines soared over pungent dissonances and jagged rhythms in the organ parts of the ”Kyrie.” However, vocal strain and sagging intonation sapped the dramatic effect of the powerful ”Sanctus.” Organist Pien brilliantly executed his part, but one longed for the variety that a sampling of their folksong or unaccompanied repertoire would have contributed. The program ended with all three choirs joining for Mozart's Ave Verum and a heartfelt America the Beautiful; hearing such lovely strains from the concerted effort of so many young people can't help but raise faith in the future and put to shame any suggestion of international rivalry. “Freedom fries,” indeed!
(Bruce Lamott is director of the Philharmonia Chorale and former choral director of the Carmel Bach Festival. He teaches music and Western Civilization at San Francisco University High School and is a visiting professor in music history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
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