San Francisco Classical Voice

The evening's largest work in terms of scale, if not musical success, was a new commission from distinguished composer Jacob Avshalomov. The composer, still productive at age 84, has created a new cycle on poems by the British poet Ruth Pitter, a writer who remains little known here but is widely acclaimed in England. The texts chosen by the composer reveal Pitter to indeed be a first-rate poet. Her soulful writings consider life, death and the Spirit, and find an understanding of these things through observations of the natural world. She is a bit like Yeats, in fact, in both intent and manner, with clear and musical rhythms and rhyme often animating her poems.

Unfortunately, the depth and fullness of the writing are underserved by this piece of music, because the composer has chosen seven lengthy poems, with one repeated, and it's simply too much to receive its musical due in the half-hour or so that this piece occupied. To be sure, there are plenty of virtues to recommend this work, especially in the later movements. Fine counterpoint and appealing harmonies and choral textures come increasingly into play, along with some faster tempos, though textual clarity diminishes in the process. The first few poems, however, rely on a blocky style of text-setting and medium tempos that are clear enough, but seem to be employed in order to simply get through the poems. About half the poetry, or even less, could have been set with greater affect in a piece of this length, with the music's best elements better serving the grace and musicality of the language. The ensemble addressed the work with energy and purpose throughout, especially in the exuberant closing movements.

Although the ensemble's longtime composer-in-residence, Mark Winges, didn't add any of his own music to the program, he made a major contribution as a researcher and arranger. His new arrangements of three American shape-note tunes, a genre of a cappella folk music, opened the program. These were examples of expert, mellifluous choral writing that effectively framed the simple beauty of the melodies. The stirring opening, “Friendship,” was performed by the ensemble surrounding the audience around the perimeter of the church. Winges explained in a spoken note that this was how the sections of 19th-Century shape-note singing groups often faced each other, but it also provided a particularly warm welcome to the audience, and had a beautiful resonance in the warm acoustics of Old First.

Volti also brought out a work from their repertoire that Winges unearthed some years ago, Charles Loeffler's unpublished Angelus, from 1920. This is an utter gem of a piece, with a fluent dialogue between the sections of the chorus and some chromaticism and hints of jazz to sweeten its effect.

The ensemble reprised another valuable work from their repertoire, William Albright's Chichester Mass of 1979. This brief, brilliant work exhibited the most orchestral concept of choral writing on the program, as voices whispered, formed layered sonorities, swelled, and at times sustained complex harmonies while solo voices emerged from within these lovely textures. Albright mixed both the Latin mass text and English translations, and poignantly brought back the ”Lamb of God” to end the work. The performance was both commanding and deeply felt.

The final new piece of the evening came from Bay Area stalwart Kirke Mechem, whose American Trio, Op.70 consisted of settings of three familiar works by major American poets: Robert Frost's “Fire and Ice,” Edwin Arlington Robinson's “Richard Corey,” and e.e. cummings' “sweet spring is yours.” Mechem's approach was effective and relatively simple, presenting the text with the greatest clarity of the evening's new works. He particularly captured the enjoyment of both language and its subject that comes through in a reading of the cummings poem. The works were fairly satisfying, but not especially moving following the deeper searches for expression that were heard in the evening's earlier offerings. As was the case throughout the concert, the energy, commitment and vocal beauty brought forward by Geary and ensemble were commendable.