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CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW
November 16, 2003
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By Kaneez Munjee
The fifty-five singers of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, in UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall Sunday, made evident why the Russian choral tradition is so revered and so powerful in the world of vocal music. The rich harmonies, the breadth of dynamic range needed for their expression, and the impressively expansive vocal range associated with Russian choral music were continually displayed by the singers of the Capella. With it went a commitment to the music and to the performance that were communicated to the audience through the intensity of their engagement with their director, Vladislav Chernushenko.
Established in 1479 by Tsar Ivan III with the name “The Tsar's Singing Clerics,” the St. Petersburg Capella is Russia's oldest choir. Despite changing its name many times, it has followed a tradition of excellence in musical standards, enhanced by the direction of such prominent musicians as Dmitry Bortniansky and Mikhail Glinka. At different points in its history, the Capella even included both Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great — as singing members. The group took up residence in St. Petersburg in 1703 with the founding of the then-new city, and in 1889 began singing in a newly-constructed concert hall across from the Winter Palace, to this day considered to have outstanding acoustics. For much of its early life, the Capella was involved in making music in both the Imperial Chapel and the Imperial Court. Sacred music written for this and other Russian choirs during the pre-revolution era formed the first half of Chernushenko's program. During the Communist era, with sacred music banned, many composers turned to arranging Russian folk songs for the choirs to sing, as sampled in the second half of the concert.
Despite the contrast in repertory, the two halves of the concert demonstrated remarkable consistency in intensity and in the sheer vocal talent of the singers. Nearly every piece on the program featured a solo voice or set of solo voices stepping forward from the choir and deeply impressing their audience. The musical caliber of the group as a whole was increasingly evident as each new soloist emerged. The blend, power and sense of ensemble arising from the Capella in toto made it blatantly apparent that a dynamite choir can be made up of strong solo singers — and perhaps even should be. Chernushenko was a subtle conductor, with every gesture purposeful and necessary, the singers responding with nuanced reactions. Each piece evinced hallmarks of the Russian choral style: lush harmonies and progressions; low bass notes; a sonic background created by the choir humming; a hovering or suspended quality to the choral backgrounds; alternation between the sound of the male choir and the sound of the full choir; and tremendous dynamic swells. It was perhaps this last element which was most impressive: that a group of fifty-five could make a sound so soft but concentrated, and within only moments crescendo to a fortissimo that filled Zellerbach Hall — and have also the ability to do the reverse, beautifully . Highlights from the repertoire included Pavel Chesnokov's “Da ispravitsia molitva moya” (“Let my Prayer Arise”), featuring a warm, rich alto solo; Sergei Rachmaninoff's “Tebe poyem” (“To Thee we Sing”) from his Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom featuring a floating, delicate soprano singing from a balcony (an encore to the first half of the program) and one of the three encore pieces from the end of the concert, a quiet folk song sung by a light tenor about the bells ringing as the troikas go through the snow.
There were sacred pieces by Arkhangelsky, Bortniansky, Sviridov, and Tchaikovsky, and folk songs of all moods, and tales ranging from the “Song of the Volga Boatmen” in a complex choral arrangement to pieces about love, death, and the travails of daily life. Throughout, Chernushenko's energy was matched by the choir and the featured soloists, who also exhibited great dramatic flair. The power of this music and the intensity of this performance were not even marred by the small things that can go wrong with any choir: occasional moments of low pitch in the sopranos as they hummed one or two high notes, a few staggered entrances, or a catch in a soloist's otherwise smooth line. These moments did nothing to lessen the impact of this array of Russian music, the phenomenal sound of these fifty-five voices under the consummate musician who has been at their helm for nearly thirty years.
(Kaneez Munjee is a singer, writer and editor. She is currently a doctoral
candidate in Musicology at Stanford University.)
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Vladislav Chernushenko