Reaching for the Godhead

Jason Victor Serinus on August 26, 2008
Bless San Francisco Lyric Chorus' collective heart for programming heavenly music during the worst of summer's classical concert lull. While Lord knows how many singers and musicians were hiking Yosemite, SFLC's music director, Robert Gurney, took his musicians on a trek to the firmament. Programming no fewer than four Te Deums by Handel, Haydn, Britten, and Dvorák, as well as enlisting four professional soloists, an organist, and a timpanist in the process, was a major undertaking. If Gurney's auditioned, all-volunteer chorus ultimately was not up to the task Saturday at San Francisco's Trinity Episcopal Church, nonetheless they nicely outlined the beauty of the music at hand. Part of the problem lay in the chorus' voice distribution. Attempting to balance 17 sopranos and 12 altos were just four tenors (one was professional soloist Kevin Baum, another a female) and seven basses. Nor were the male voices (Baum's aside) capable of much volume. The women on their own made a lovely, somewhat wispy sound, but the men had no way to match it. The strong, solid foundation that so much choral music requires simply was not there.

Notes for Days

Before the concert began, a woman seated behind me whispered to her companion, "What an intellectual audience this is. That man over there is reading The New York Times, and the man across the aisle is doing a crossword puzzle." She might as easily have been referring to the folks in the audience who were attempting to digest Helene Whitson's 12 full pages of small-print program notes and an equally impressive page and a half bibliography. Assembling so much detailed, well-written information for a choral concert of this sort deserves a round of applause. James Keller's excellent efforts for the San Francisco Symphony may be wittier, but they are no more extensive. The problem with so much information is that it sets up expectations. When you read, in the description of the third section of Handel's Te Deum in A Major, "The chorus punctuates the description of the Cherubim and Seraphim with their cries of Holy! Holy! Holy!, finishing the movement in praise to the majesty of the Almighty," you expect loud cries and majestic outpourings. Instead, the loud cries and majestic outpourings of Trinity Church's powerful, newly restored Aeolian Skinner organ virtually drowned out the chorus. Save for the very end of Dvorák's Te Deum, when chorus and two soloists gave their all, the chorus' singing was only minimally audible over the combined bloom of organist Robert Train Adams' instrument and percussionist Allen Biggs' two less-than-perfectly-tuned timpani. Only on softer passages, especially those without accompaniment, did the beauty of choral voices come through. I don't want to minimize the chorus' achievement. Britten's Festival Te Deum is notable for the independent meters of chorus and organ accompaniment. It is not that easy to sing in a completely different time signature than your accompaniment, but the chorus was up to the challenge. The unaccompanied passages of Haydn's Te Deum in C (Hob. XXIIIc, No. 2) were especially beautiful, even if the lines in the final double fugue were at times messy and blurry.

Solo Gifts

I cannot say enough about soprano Jennifer Ashworth. Gifted with a near-ideal early music voice, in her soft singing she exhibits an even, glistening vibrato that transforms into pure, glowing tones higher in the range. Ashworth's ability to swell her sound to considerable volume on high, then pull back to a mere sliver of vibrant tone, all while maintaining exceptionally lovely sweetness, won me over. Most impressive was the sheer musicality of her phrasing. I would count myself lucky to hear her again soon. The attractively voiced and steady tenor of former Chanticleerian Kevin Baum was also consistently gratifying. Singing the bass part in Handel and Dvorák, baritone William Neely did a fine job, though the voice strained a bit on top and was not always steady in volume. Countertenor Daniel Cromeenes has a lovely voice, but his overly placid, oomphless singing and prosaic expression left me wishing for an animated mezzo-soprano in his stead. In the opening procession, where many chorus members seemed overly self-conscious as they entered the church from the side, then processed to the back and down the center aisle, tenor chorus member Benjamin West suitably matched Baum.

A Belch From the Bellows

One unintentionally droll glitch occurred. Before launching into the Dvorák, Gurney explained that the organ, which will be dedicated this fall, was having some break-in problems. Adams, he revealed, was doing his best to work his way around them, often by improvising. Clearly, there was at least one sticky key on the keyboard. Instead of the expected silence after the final triumphal notes of the Dvorák, the organ let out a decidedly off-key "blaht!" It's going to take more than a pipe cleaner to fix that one.