Volume 24 Issue 6 - March 2019

y the Bach Choir
of Bethlehem and
issued in commemoration
of the
choir’s 120th anniversary
and Greg
Funfgeld’s 35th
as its conductor.
The 88-voice choir
is a Pennsylvania institution along with
its annual Bach Festival and Bach Festival
Orchestra. It’s Handel on a relatively moderated
but still grand scale, harkening back to
19th- and early 20th-century traditions. The
orchestra is playing modern instruments, but
there are only 27 of them, and that large choir
provides depth and an impressive richness.
Two fine Canadian singers appear as soloists,
lending distinguished skills to the arias.
Halifax-native, tenor Benjamin Butterfield,
brings a brassy bravado to the drum and horn
effusion of The trumpet’s loud clangor, while
Edmonton-born Cassandra Lemoine’s refined
soprano dovetails beautifully with Robin
Kani’s flute on The soft complaining flute.
Lemoine’s grace and clarity also highlight
the full force of choir and orchestra in the
sustained conclusion of As from the pow’r of
sacred lays.
Stuart Broomer
In Meinem Himmel – The Mahler Song
Cycles
Kindra Scharich; Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics FCL 2019
(foghornclassics.com)
!!
This project
comes from San
Francisco and it
is an experiment
by the renowned
Alexander String
Quartet to transcribe
three of
Mahler’s orchestral
song cycles, Songs of a Wayfarer, Rückert-
Lieder and Kindertotenlieder for string
quartet in order to experience this repertoire
in an intimate chamber music setting and
perhaps enrich and enhance its emotional
world. I had some misgivings, because nowadays
there is a definite trend to different
versions of the great works, by ambitious
musicians, that could harm and distort the
composer’s original intent.
To my mind, these are definitely orchestral
songs and require the power and the colours
of the full contingent of a symphony orchestra
with Mahler’s unique orchestration for their
musical and emotional impact. The sound of
a string quartet is entirely different and hasn’t
the pungent quality the wind instruments
provide and it cannot possibly duplicate
what Mahler had in mind, although the transcriber
violinist Zakarias Grafilo, gave much
thought and effort to preserve some of the
aural colours and even the emotional innigkeit
of the original, yet es ist kein Mahler as I
imagine Leonard Bernstein would say.
Nevertheless it’s a labour of love. Idiomatic
and virtuoso string playing and the singing
is simply gorgeous. Young American mezzo
Kindra Scharich has a beautiful voice,
total emotional commitment and musical
imagination that certainly makes worthwhile
listening. Her soulful, anguished tone
when the rejected lover sings about the two
beautiful blue eyes of his lost sweetheart (Die
zwei blauen Augen) is simply heartbreaking
and I just loved her voice so full of joy in
exclaiming Heia! in Ging heut morgen. An
interesting experiment, but not quite Mahler.
Janos Gardonyi
John Harbison – Requiem
Soloists; Nashville Symphony Chorus and
Orchestra; Giancarlo Guerrer
Naxos 8.559841 (naxosdirect.com)
!!
John Harbison’s
Requiem captures
the nature of death
with both metaphysical
and
aesthetic sophistication,
firstly because
of the authentic use
of the Latin text in
its scriptural context and secondly because
of the utterly existential prescience of this
choral performance. Despite the fact that
the music eventually soars with the apposite
release of Libera me, the shadowy solemnity
of the preceding sequences makes the work
both profoundly melancholic and breathtakingly
beautiful. It is a monumental work
– Harbison’s pièce de résistance – appropriate
to the events of 9/11 which inspired
it. Consequently the use of the Latin in
the setting of a traditional requiem might
commemorate a divine passion – such as in
the Introit – yet the work commemorates
abject human suffering.
The musicians of the Nashville Symphony
and Chorus convey the gravitas of Harbison’s
epic work with a powerful sense of both
sorrow and spontaneity. Chorus director
Tucker Biddlecombe’s inspired choices
of male and female voices – the powerful
and incisive (solo) singing of Jessica Rivera
(soprano), Michaela Martens (mezzosoprano),
Nicholas Phan (tenor) and Kelly
Markgraf (baritone) – and the ensemble
performances, bring a passionate, soaring
intensity to the antiphons, responsories
and sequences, to produce an absorbing
and inexorable service. Giancarlo Guerrero
fixes his sights on the sheer drama of the
proverbial solemn high mass and shepherds
a program that swirls with sinewy energy
heavy with the atmosphere of foreboding
before its ultimate – even joyful – release of
the final In paradisum.
Raul da Gama
Damask Roses – Art Songs by Mozart;
Dvorak and Quilter
Kira Braun; Peter Krochak
Independent (kirabraunsoprano.com)
!!
With Valentine’s
Day approaching I
enjoyed this lovethemed
CD, the
latest in a series
of varied artsong
programs by
Canadian duo Kira
Braun and Peter
Krochak. A relative
(niece/first cousin) of famed Canadian
father-and-son baritones Victor and Russell
Braun, soprano Kira demonstrates her own
high standard. Here there are three song
groups by different composers: Mozart (18th
century, in German), Dvořák (19th century, in
Czech), and Roger Quilter (early 20th century,
in English). The opening three Mozart songs
demonstrate the duo’s fine ensemble and
Braun’s excellent diction and tone, though
I would have liked to have heard even more
charm and colour in both voice and piano. By
contrast, the interpretations of four selections
from Quilter’s Seven Elizabethan Lyrics,
Op.12 are especially appealing, including
the title song, Damask Roses. Braun’s pure
soprano is attractive and she brings both
restraint and conviction to Weep You No More
and also to Quilter’s earlier Love’s Philosophy
from Three Songs, Op.3.
In both the Quilter lyrics and Dvořák’s
Gypsy Songs, Op.55 there are songs in a
higher range, that she is quite equal to,
adopting a fiery demeanor in Set the Fiddle
Scraping that Krochak matches with lively
piano accompaniment. Their version of the
well-known Songs My Mother Taught Me
is appropriately affectionate; they bring out
Dvořák’s contrasts and distinctive touches in
this set, making it one I’m pleased to be able
to return to.
Roger Knox
I Carry Your Heart
University of South Dakota Chamber
Singers; David Holdhusen
Navona Records nv6203
(navonarecords.com)
! ! South
Dakota? Isn’t this
midwestern state
most famous
for its beautifully
rugged landscape,
including
Mount Rushmore?
Nevertheless, in
light of this fine recording titled I Carry Your
Heart, featuring the University of South
Dakota Chamber Singers under the direction
of David Holdhusen, it seems that South
Dakota also has a vibrant choral scene.
The USD Chamber Singers is the
80 | March 2019 thewholenote.com