Greetings readers!
Posted below is a concert review I covered for Sound and Noise:
The Stuttgart Chamber Choir was so good that, frankly, it makes me sick. How can a choir be that good? Recognition must be given to the Richard Eaton Singers for bringing in the Stuttgart Chamber Choir; a stellar addition in celebration of their 60th anniversary season. Conducted by Frieder Bernius, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir was joined by TorQ Percussion Quartet from Toronto this past Wednesday evening.
The
program began and ended with what I would expect a German choir to sing
best, repertoire by German composers. In this case, it was Bach and
Mendelssohn. As far as I’m concerned, the choir provided the model
choral sound for these composers. Listening to Bach’s “Singet dem Herrn”
was like hearing the aural construction of a luxury fabric. Only the
finest vocal threads were chosen and interwoven into a sound textile
that was uniform, seamless, and impenetrable. I would expect no less of
German workmanship. The musical lines within the Bach were sung with
such motile precision. If I wanted to acoustically parse each of the
notes in the running lines, they would all have been equally balanced
and resonant. As well, their German diction was so clean; I could have
easily transcribed every phoneme that they were singing, further
demonstrating how they have the prototype choral sound for Bach. The
collective choral voice was clean, crisp and pliable. Mendelssohn’s “Te
Deum” was sung with the same precision and the text stanza’s were
interspersed with lyrical lines sung by a quartet of singers. They had
an amazing bass singer in the quartet, who just so happened to be
featured in every soloistic combination during the concert. I developed a
choir girl crush on him. The “Te Deum” also featured the solo work of a
full-bodied mezzo-soprano; a refreshing change from the crisp choral
texture. My highlight moment within the “Te Deum” was the pleading echos
of “Miserere nostri/have mercy on us” from individual voices within the
choir. The overlapping and weaving laments produced collective
sentiments that were hauntingly helpless.
The Stuttart Chamber
Choir rearranged themselves in order to perform Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna,”
decreasing their choir size of 27 to 16 in order to have an individual
voice on each part. I have sung Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” before. It is not
easy. It made me want to clutch helplessly onto my tuning fork, but I
knew, deep down, that it wasn't going to help me. The strings of sound
dissonance were sung with an unwavering confidence. The chromatic tones
emerged from the individual parts to compose an impermeable core sound.
The chords would miraculously lock after all of the individual chromatic
movements and eventual decrescendo to a low F drone in the alto voices.
Their performance made Ligeti’s piece sound easy. At points, I was
quietly laughing to myself, in disbelief, in response to how they were
able to carry off that piece.
The words within Pärt’s “Nunc
dimittis” are taken from the book of Luke and details Simeon words to
the baby Jesus in Jerusalem. Simeon does not wish to die until he has
seen, with his own eyes, his Saviour. As an audience member, I expected
an epiphanal moment within the piece. However, during “Nunc dimittis,” I
felt Stuttgart’s performance had a restrained energy. Though the
performance of any piece is up to artistic interpretation, I just felt
like the choir could have stretched their emotional limits in this one.
Personally, I prefer choirs that take a risk. I like choirs that sound
almost overwhelmed, brimming with passionate intensity in response to
the text and music. At the climax of “Nunc dimittis,” when the choir
sings of the revelatory light and calls out to the people of Israel, I
just felt like they could have given more. I wanted more. Sure, that might mean that they could potentially sound sloppy
from all that unbridled emotion (I don’t think that’s possible) but I
just wanted to hear an eruption of sound. Instead, their sound just felt
contained.
The showcase work, by Montreal composer, Paul Frehner, “Corpus,” incorporated the talents of the TorQ Percussion Quartet.
According to Frehner’s program notes, he wished to create a piece that
explored the “mystical, religious and metaphysical writings on the
universal topics of the human body…. in its various states of life,
death, oblivion, and afterlife.” That’s all very nice and well, but how
does that translate to a performance? Overall, this work sounded like an
epic play to me. The vocal components played individual characters,
working together to tell the story in solo and chorus combinations, and
the percussion created the sound environment. Frehner’s piece has such a
dense network of concepts and lends itself well to continuous musical
analysis. The piece began with a monotone solo with an eerie suspension
in the soprano section paired with the ominous bass voices. There were
also two superimposed chant lines within the piece. The power of the TorQ Percussion Quartet
did have the tendency to overwhelm Stuttgart’s sound and it was
apparent that TorQ had to restrain themselves in order to achieve
balance. Which is a shame because they were brilliant. This was
especially apparent when the canon of drums percolated throughout the
church and cascaded into a vibrant cacophony. They also had such a
diverse array of percussion instruments and techniques to create sounds
from the resonant metallic echos to the tensile tones created when
bowing a cymbal. TorQ created sound textures that evoked strong images
and emotional reactions from the audience. I especially enjoyed the end
of the piece where the atonal modern chant line in the choir was paired
with the tribal groove of the percussion. The resulting effect was quite
remarkable.
Being
able to witness choral performances, such as this concert with the
Stuttgart Chamber Choir, reminded me of the expansive range of choral
talent in the world. It's easy to forget when you're tucked away in a
wintery Canadian city. Though I am an avid chorister, it is rare for me
to hear a professional ensemble. It is difficult to have opportunities
to hear what the best sounds like, but when it is in your neighborhood,
you would be doing yourself a disservice not to take a listen.
Until next time readers, take care!
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