Tuesday, April 7, 1992

Beethoven Inspires Best in Vocalists
Choral Society performs Missa Solemnis

By Robert Commanday, San Francisco Chronicle Music Critic

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis Is a kind of miracle and its latest performance by the San Francisco Choral Society in Davies Hall, on Monday demonstrated the inspirational effect it can have on its performers. If they have the good will, some talent, and much intelligence this most demanding of choral mark of the classic/romantic repertory can raise their collective effort to the heights.

In short, these 275 choristers an orchestra of professional musicians from here and there and a solo quartet of non-celebrity but well qualified singers performed the Missa Solemnis more than well. They did it convincingly. It was the conductor, you say. Yes, but in part. Adrian Horn who founded the Choral Society is an extraordinary leader to have drawn this group together and taken it through eight major works In its three years for audiences which now fill Davies to capacity.
How he brings off the performance, however is a mystery. He is a  most unprepossessing and undynamic conductor and by all odds it shouldn't work. With soft hands and even gestures, Horn indicated the tempo and little more, hardly suggesting the momentous scenario and range of musical expression. He cued lightly and infrequently. Yet although the possibility that he was inspiring anything seemed remote, a significantly expressive performance occurred. So much for charisma.

Careful Preparation
It was as if someone else had prepared it all and so well that anther could lead it. Careful not to impose much of himself. Clearly, However, Horn, who has considerable training and experience, had conceived, organized and rehearsed these forces to the point where they would produce this masterwork from inside themselves. This deserves credit at least equally to the conventionally directed performance emanating from a single source, centered in one authority's inspiration. While teaching the choristers how to sing it, Horn gave them an understanding of the Missa Solemnis from which they could create their performance, making musically manifest this greatest of conceptions of the mass.
The manifold prayer attitudes Beethoven struck in the Kyrie were there, outreaching, enfolding. The intimate and personal sentences within the jubilation of the Gloria and the great dramatic statement of the Credo were there. The chorus did not shrink or falter, maintaining the pace when It was driving, holding the intonation, the collective sound sufficient. Many if not most of the voices were lightweight and section tone was generally open with hardly a trace of coloring but chorally and textually, the integrity was there. So the Et vitam venturi fugue at presto was wavy lines and the sopranos clung to the high B flat by their fingertips, so what, It was there.

Emotional singing
The cherished music was the Benedictus portion of the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei- Although a miscue and inattention from Horn caused two bobbies, his affection for these most moving parts of the Missa was pervasive. To be sure, these soloists had it in them and sang with genuine feeling. Helen Dilworth, a light soprano for Beethoven, made her fine line count and most musically. Similarly, the mezzo soprano Unda Childs sang excellently that inner part with inner feeling.
The two men took the melodic initiative, impressively paired. In his baritonish tenor, Daniel Harper projected the music's personal character warmly. David Tigner, a fully developed, mature artist long resident here, was outstanding, fervent, compassionate, his bass deeply, evenly resonant, leading the bassoon and cello line. The seraphic violin solo that with the trilling flute blesses the Benedictus was beautifully done and in a sweet, clear and carrying tone by the young concertmaster, Carol Kutsch. The orchestra served Beethoven with honor.

Tuesday, March 30, 1993

Sunday's Twin Bill Serendipity

By Robert Commanday, San Francisco Chronicle Music Critic

Two overlapping concerts Sunday afternoon were attractive enough to warrant double dipping: the Faure, Requiem half of the San Francisco Choral Society's program in Davies; Hall and then pianist Reah S Sadowsky's recital In the Veterans Building Green Room.
The Choral Society of more than 200 singers and a skilled orchestra was under a guest conductor, Brute Lamott, who worked a special touch with the quintessentially French Faure. Sadowsky played Schubert, Mendelssohn, Berg and Debussy, all of
them beautifully. It was a twofer.
Refinement, lightness. Precision and restraint characterized Lamott's approach. Initially With Faure's orchestral suite," Masques et Bergamasques".
That was an Inventive and appropriate choice as prelude to the Requiem. The suite, a Faure homage In 1919 to the music of the 18th century court, set the frame for the subtleties of the deceptively simple, quite sophisticated style. Lamott conducted with poise, exactness and a grace that elicited the buoyant rhythms and pliant phrases of the four dance-modeled movements.

Hushed Pianissimo
He then addressed the most sensitive of requiem with the same finesse. That was essential to reconcile the uncommonly large Choral Society to the intimate mature of the work. The choral music is often prayer, in effect, intoned in hushed pianissimo (and the bush of a large chorus sounds more mystical, embracing and awed than the soft singing of a ~ choir). Faures shapely, calm melodies floating over the even slow march of his harmony made difficult demands on the singers' vocal control and support. Some, times tenor and soprano sections came a hair below the centered pitch of perfection - failing from grace, their tone was not quite pure and hallowed.

The solos for baritone, limited in range almost In plain chant manner, and the soprano's Pie Jesu, a more gracious and personal reverence also were contained. laura Clayemb wisely brought her vibrant voice down small, at the cost however of pliancy In the phrasing. Leroy Kromm sang the baritone In a high, tenor-like voice with a slight grainy tone that he darkens on top and was most effective In the Libera me, A remarkably acute organist, Tom Rhoads, was crucial to this close knit performance
Lamott's sensitivity was essential. Faure's expressive gestures are subtle, and often only suggestions, allusions. The Sanctus is ethereal rather than brilliant - even the four-horn fanfare announcing Its Hosanna brief - as were the other momentous or dramatic statements of the Requiem. It was atmospheric and delicately poised, and the spiritual qualities emerged.