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Cupid’s arrow hits and misses at Fine Arts Chorale concert
The concert’s repertoire was a wonderful selection of songs that centered on the many aspects of love.
The Fine Arts Chorale, in its 36th season, boasts some of Kansas City's finest singers, yet in recent years they have struggled to find an identify in the area's rich stable of vocal ensembles. Their recent trend of innovative programming and more aggressive marketing ventures has helped to erase this shortcoming. The group's concerts this past weekend, titled "The Birds and the Bees" was a rousing success for the Chorale, as they enjoyed record attendance.
The concert's repertoire was a wonderful selection of songs that centered on the many aspects of love. The first set contained some of the most famous choral settings of romantic poetry: Mendelssohn's Die Nachtigall and two excerpts from Brahms'Liebeslieder Walzer. The Mendelssohn provided a lovely start to the concert. The piece was well-tuned but a little restrained. Ending the set was Healey Willan's I Beheld Her, Beautiful as a Dove. After a tentative start the ensemble recovered nicely and achieved some lovely soft dynamic singing.
The Fine Arts Chorale's most daring bit of programming was the vaunted Les Chansons des Roses by modern composer Morten Lauridsen. A song cycle in five parts, the "rose cycle" presents great challenge as well as rewards to choral ensembles, and it has been a world-wide favorite since its publication in 1993. Throughout the cycle, the chorale struggled with a cohesive approach to the language (all in French, with poetry by Rilke). This lack of cohesion caused the fourth movement, "La Rose Compléte", to drop noticeably in pitch. As this movement moved via attacca to the last movement, the set's most popular song "Dirait-on", the ensemble landed in the wrong key as the piano began playing. Even with these difficulties, the romance of Rilke's poetry and Lauridsen's eclectic musical imagery proved to be an effective bit of programming.
After three nice but relatively forgettable solo offerings from Chorale members, the ensemble sang a rich and jazzy setting of Robert Burns' classic poem Oh, My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose. From a performance perspective, this proved to be the best selection of the first half.
As the second half of the concert began, the audience was treated to a nice change of pace as the Chorale welcomed two guest performers. First was Madregalia, a madrigal group comprised of students from Johnson County Community College. Madregalia presented three songs from the late Renaissance, singing with nice clarity and intonation.
Stealing the show was guest solo vocalist Ida Nicolosi. Ms. Nicolosi, clad in a fire-engine red dress, sizzled in an eclectic set of arias, art songs, and popular tunes. Every time Nicolosi sings, she does not disappoint. Here, accompanied at the piano by Village Presbyterian Church Director of Music Mark Ball, Ida showcased a range of vocal technique that any soprano would envy. From Puccini's Quando m'en Vo (La Bohéme) to Gershwin's Our Love is Here To Stay to Mahler and even Stephen Foster, Nicolosi had the audience eating out of her hand the entire time.
The Fine Arts Chorale returned to the stage for one last set and ending song. The men of the ensemble showed lovely blend and warmth on a setting of Love Is Here to Stay by Walter Pelz. Elizabeth Alexander's To Make a Prairie, written to evocative poetry by Emily Dickinson, successfully pitted musical imagery of expansive spaces with stark colors. The performance of Mark Johnson's setting of the traditional Irish song Oh Danny Boy left this reviewer longing for a more traditional rendition of the folk classic.
Throughout the entire performance, the ensemble sang of love and romance but largely lacked visible passion. It wasn't until the last song of the entire performance that the group finally came out of its shell. In David Blackwell's arrangement of the classic Cole Porter song Let's Do It, the Fine Arts Chorale came alive, showing pure enthusiasm in their faces.
Artistic Director Dr. Terri Teal should be commended for the concert's programming. An evening of choral music focused on romance can easily become cliché and obtuse. The Fine Arts Chorale showed flashes of greatness at this weekend's concert and largely succeeded in giving their gracious audience a look at the many kinds of love.
The group's season ending concert, titled The Green Concert (featuring music that evokes the beauty of the earth and its resources), will be presented on May 1 at 8:00pm at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lawrence, KS and May 2 at 7:30pm at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City.
REVIEW
Fine Arts Chorale
"The Birds and the Bees"
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009 (Reviewed)
www.fineartschoralekc.org
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