|
CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW A Gathering of Choirs October 6, 2002
|
By Anna Carol Dudley
Seven Bay Area youth choirs brought the bright colors of their voices and
various uniforms to Grace Cathedral Sunday afternoon as the "Voices of
America's Future." Judging by their performance, that future is bright
indeed. From the Bay Area and beyond, hundreds of young people, from the
age of six and well into the teens, meet every week to sing — that is, to
develop outstanding musical and language skills, to raise their voices in
healthy, beautiful and expressive sound, to benefit from the discipline
and joy of social interaction, and, from the looks of it, to have a lot of
fun doing it.
The concert featured four boy choirs (three of them including men as well,
in various combinations), two mixed choirs and the San Francisco Girls
Chorus. Occasional competition from the Blue Angels outside failed to
dampen anyone's spirits.
From the Piedmont Choirs, the audience heard the top Ensemble: 45 trebles,
girls and boys, aged nine to fourteen, singing a cappella and all from
memory. Under Robert Geary's direction, they sang two songs from Poulenc's
Petites Voix with beguiling tone and very musical phrasing and dynamics,
especially impressive considering that French is not their native language.
Then they lit into "Revontulet" (Northern Lights) by Finnish composer Pekka
Kostiainen — a striking piece replete with complex rhythms and harmonies
and stunning vocal and visual effects. They sang it with technical
proficiency and the total involvement of every singer.
Another choir which excelled in challenging repertoire, old and new,
was Chorissima, the San Francisco Girls Chorus A group. They processed
in from the back of the nave, singing Hildegard von Bingen's "O frondens
virga." Their staying together in unison chant from front to back of the
line in the echoing acoustic of Grace Cathedral was a tribute to their
excellent musicianship and the sure direction of Susan McMane. Pieces by
Maurice Duruflé and Stephen Paulus, tonally and rhythmically complicated,
were sung with visible involvement, impeccable intonation and excellent
diction.
Joyce Keil's Ragazzi Boys Chorus, soprano to bass, had a good time with a lively Maori song. Bob Chilcott's "In the Heart of the World," written for them, showed off their solid musicianship and featured an accomplished solo descant singer. The boys left the last number to the young tenors and basses — Randall Thompson's "The Pasture" from Frostiana, sung with sure projection of the words and lovely sound. The Crystal Children's Choir is composed of Chinese-American girls and boys up to age 17. Under Jenny Chiang's direction, they sang the Bach/Gounod "Ave Maria," and, in Chinese, "In a Far Away Land." Then Karl Chang led them in a spirited performance of "Ode to the Eight Stallions," also an arrangement of a Chinese song, featuring a strong rhythmic figure, sung with gusto, and an appealing soprano soloist. Kevin Fox's Pacific Boychoir Troubadours, all unchanged voices singing with clarity and feeling, performed "When Children Sing" by Mary Goetze, starting with a unison verse, then in canon, and finally in harmony. There are many strong, beautiful voices in this relatively small choir, and several of them were given solo turns as they went on to a couple of arrangements: "Over Yonder" by Joseph Jennings and "Ride the Chariot" by Beatrice and Max Krone. The San Francisco Boys Chorus, with the addition of tenor and bass alumni for some numbers, led off the concert with movements from Vivaldi's "Gloria" and Olivier Messiaen's "O Sacrum Convivium," under Ian Robertson's direction. And the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, gracious hosts to the entire concert, brought it to an end with William Walton's cantata, The Twelve. Steeped in the finest tradition of English choral singing, this choir has been in existence in the Bay Area for the longest time of any there. Several very able soloists, both men and boys, made strong contributions to the cantata, and Christopher Putnam presided with a sure hand. To conclude, Putnam brought all the choirs back to sing together Oscar Peterson's "Hymn to Freedom," bringing the audience to its feet for a long and deserved standing ovation.
(Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco StateUniversity [lecturer emerita] and director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.)
|