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The Collegiate Chorale
www.collegiatechorale.org
Robert Bass, Music Director
Conducted by Frank Nemhauser
With
The Westchester Choral Society
(Westchester Choral Society Website)
and
Members of the Mannes Percussion Ensemble
Dawn Wolski, soprano
Karen Feder, mezzo-soprano
James Chandler Bernard, tenor
Christopher Herbert, baritone
At
The Church of St. Paul the Apostle
(St. Paul the Apostle Website)
Press: Cohn Dutcher Associates
www.cohndutcher.com
Nikolas J. Lund
May 15, 2007
Program:
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op 52 (1869)
Carl Orff (1895-1982)
Carmina Burana (1937)
My greatest praise for this concert goes to the music director who programmed it. At a time when so many concerts featuring older music are tripping over themselves to establish a message or basic continuity between works of different composers and contexts, a pairing like the Liebeslieder-Walzer and Carmina Burana offers a basic grounds for comparison which is probably as entirely practical as any attempts at this “clever programming” might be. It seems to me a pairing which might even be worthy the extended excursus of some struggling musicologist’s doctoral thesis. (And I mean that here as a compliment.)
Without writing that thesis myself, I might suggest that the common theme of Eros, the text of the genere erotic, “set” here into the choral setting, in the unison of voices coming together, in an erotic song, is one which invites further consideration against a certain historical development. Because of the ways in which his artistic legacy is always orientated in a reflection of his own past, Brahms’s music has long concealed the questions which would link it to any “German history” which culminates in the disaster of the twentieth century. There have been scholars of late, however, who have taken up this question (Daniel Beller-McKenna’s Brahms and the German Spirit (2004) is most interesting on this subject) and have attempted to return Brahms to the greater trajectory of German culture.
And then of course, there is Orff’s masterpiece, which has enjoyed an absolutely unambiguous proximity to the disaster in question and already always receives a certain degree of attention which is all the more interesting given the fantastic diablerie the piece evokes in us. Even the program notes tonight noted that “Orff’s complicity in the matter [of the National Socialists] will continue to be debated.” So where so much is perhaps already written in between the lines of either work, the opportunity to take both works in tonight (without intermission!) definitely yields some material for that ongoing debate.
The performance itself was also worthy of some debate. Director Frank Nemhauser mentioned at the beginning that the concert represented a sort of “test run” for an upcoming concert tour in Switzerland which will feature, among others, soloists Thomas Quasthoff, Renée Fleming, and Anne Sophie von Otter. As impressed as I was with the works as I heard them tonight, it did indeed at times have the feel of a “test run.” That is, I feel that the choir has just a little distance yet to go in polishing up their interpretation. But the basic forms were in place and I have no doubt that they will achieve the level of performance I have heard from the Collegiate Chorale before.
The greater cohesion of the works was certainly in evidence and kept moving at a pace which was perfectly edifying and logical. Nevertheless, the singing was not entirely unified to a point of convincing expression, and there were more than a few moments, where I thought that the line had not received the full attention due the weight of the reading. It was most often in the closing cadences preceding the introduction of a consequent or new theme where I heard recurrent hesitation, which kept both pieces from achieving the glory of which they are undoubtedly capable.
The acoustics in St. Paul the Apostle were potentially grand, but extremely messy given the position of the singers, and this made it difficult to get any firm fix on the choir’s phrasing. Additionally, the piano upon which both works were accompanied was a totally dead instrument and most unsatisfying to the ear. As usual, such peripheral matters generally fall into the realm of inevitabilities, and yet do not escape the ears of one looking for complete grandeur in this sublime music.
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