The Choral Fabric of the Stuttgart Chamber Choir

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 60^th 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!

An ESO Chorus Line

Greetings!

I thought I would just post a quick preview about an upcoming ESO concert that I will be blogging at this weekend. It will be a concert revolving around "chorus hits." Conductors Jack Everly and Leonard Ratzlaff will be leading the ESO and Richard Eaton Singers through beloved chorus tunes. When I first saw the title, "A Chorus of Hits," the first thing that came to my mind was spunky musical theatre tunes complete with jazz hands, vibrant costumes and show faces so optimistic that they could cure cancer. A glance through the program did not wholly agree to the stereotypical image in my mind. Clearly, my addiction for the musical t.v. show, Glee, is having a huge influence on me. Side note: Who's excited about the start of the new season!?!?

It was nice to see that lots of familiar tunes were on the program even though it's not the most cohesive set list I've seen put together. However, I appreciate the fact that the ESO wants to host a fun evening where familiar and accessible music is performed. Tis' the goal of their Robbins Pops series :) As much as I enjoy listening to the complete Carmina Burana set, sometimes you just want to skip to the "O Fortuna" chorus since that chorus is the piece's claim to fame. In the case of this concert, you are able to hear famous choruses one after the other. It's just like scanning through the tracks on a chorus c.d. and playing your favorites! Some chorus pieces will include the "Humming Chorus" from Madama Butterfly, Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu", and "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. A programming choice that did make me smile with amusement was seeing two "Hallelujah" tunes one after the other. Cohen's Hallelujah followed by Handel's Hallelujah. Yep, if you're thinking what I'm thinking... that should be pretty interesting. I wonder if the audience will still stand (as per tradition) during Handel's Hallelujah...

Anyway, if you are interested in seeing how this musically eclectic choral program is going to fit together, you're in luck since there will be 2 performances at the Winspear Centre on Friday April 16 and Saturday April 17 both @ 8pm. You can get tickets online here and if you happen to be there for the Saturday performance, let me know, because I will be there :)

Until next time, take care!

Carmina Burana Review

A CHORAL REVIEW



I had the pleasure this past Sunday of attending the close to sold-out Carmina Burana show. It felt strange for me to sit and see my fellow choristers, silently sitting and with a look of calm professionalism, but not be with them in the choir loft as they readied themselves to perform again after Saturday's sold-out show. My friend, Julia, accompanied me as it was her first symphonic concert with mass choir and soloists and I was eager to note her thoughts along the way.

One thing I was interested to hear was how four stunningly different choirs were going to sound together. However, I forgot about the sheer strength that emerges when you have that many voices and it's not so much a question of how these four groups are going to work together, but what they can achieve when all their vocal energy is focused on the same goal. I often find singing with and listening to mass choirs extremely painful because it seems like there are only two dynamic levels: loud and louder. Often, the mass choir is an arena where you can sing as loud as you want and it doesn't help that everybody is trying to one-up each other in sound level; thus, when you have everybody singing at full volume, sound levels can approach the pain threshold. While there were definitely moments of sound blasting coming from the Winspear stage, it was contextually acceptable because of Orff's passionate chorus. There is a time and a place for loud mass choir singing and Carmina Burana is one of them. Futhermore, not all passages were loud as there were many lyrically sensitive passages and fervent moments within the "O Fortuna" chorus where the choirs conveyed the text with explosive diction.

While there were choral ensemble problems in the beginning two choruses, where the men were consistently ahead of the treble voices, this timing problem seemed to even out as the music progressed. Each individual choir had their own role to play and this was achieved by splitting up chorus parts. Overall, I was impressed by the rhythmic energy the men were able to convey, and they were extremely receptive to Eddin's energetic input. I felt that Eddin's had a very musically sensitive relationship with the men, moreso than with the treble voices, but this could be due to the fact that the men have some star moments within Carmina Burana. It was also illuminating to hear Kokopelli and Oran by themselves during their solo sections. Although, classical music may not be their particular specialty, they produced a light angelic-like sound which appeared to fit the text. During later sections, when their lines had more lyrical warmth, you could hear that they were more in their element. The Cantilon Chamber Choir, in my slightly biased opinion, sounded the cleanest all the groups. They had the vocal precision and technique to accurately deliver the demands of the music and their vocal energy cut all the way back to the Gallery where I was sitting. I appreciated the fact I was able to hear the sound of the individual choirs but the sound of the mass choir, as Julia put it, had a "thrilling and powerful" presence that was definitely the highlight of the performance

Normally, I find the ESO a bit overpowering when they are paired with guests artists, however, I felt the ESO was supportive with symphonic lines that provided a solid structural framework for further sound construction. As well, the two pianos on stage had a brilliantly radiant quality that energized the sound of the symphony. Julia noted that while she could appreciate the talents of the symphony, she wished that the sound was better balanced so that she could have experienced more of the vocal effects. She also mentioned that if there was a better balance, maybe some of the choral ensemble problems could have been corrected. I agree with her since everything is so loud within a mass choir that all you can do is watch the conductor and hope you're in time with the other half of the choir.

The soloists were definitely an interesting entity within this performance as they were much more animated that I was expecting! The baritone, Hugh Russell, had an interesting swagger coming to and from his seat as the chorus and symphony musically mocked him at a key moment in the piece while the tenor, Bonventura Bottone, definitely displayed an array of dramatic gestures throughout the show. It provided good comic relief but Julia stated that it distracted her slightly from the actual performance. I wished that soprano, Ilana Davidson, emanated more musical energy in her voice. While her voice was very pretty and lyrical, it just did not wow me in comparison to all the other inspiring sounds I was hearing.

Carmina Burana was the star piece of the show but Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with horn soloist, Allene Hackleman, was one of Julia's favorite due to its immensely relaxing yet sorrowful sound. This further highlights the fact that you do not have to be a classical music connoisseur to reap the intended effects of Britten's musical genius.

I applaud the fact that the ESO makes a positive effort to incorporate the diverse range of musical groups available within Edmonton and I am looking forward to more musically collaborative events. Personally, it was enlightening to hear my fellow choristers make music together and hopefully I will have the chance to join them in the future!

Be sure to check out the ESO blog for more enlightening symphony entries!

Until next time, take care readers!