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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The Metropolitan Chorale consists of students and community members from the metropolitan community college network. In the first half of Saturday evening’s performance at the Stone Church in Independence, the group performed a “madrigal soap opera” with narrated program notes and other audience-friendly antics peppered throughout. Though the presentation was cheeky, the music was standard.

The madrigal set was structured around three Luca Marenzio sixteenth-century madrigals set to the story of Tirsi, a shepherd, and his nymph lover. Conductor Rebecca Johnson rightfully reduced the choir’s numbers for this first half of the program, serving the delicateness of these madrigals to good effect. Mixed with the Marenzio pieces were works by Thomas Morley, Claudio Monteverdi, and Pierre Certon. The highlights of the delightful set were Morley’s fa-la-la Fyer, Fyer, Marenzio’s Freno Tirsi il desio, Monteverdi’s Amor de lamento della ninfa, and Certon’s Je la vous dirai! The final two were polar opposites. Monteverdi’s ground bass upon which the three soprano soloists glided over was gripping. Pairing it with Certon’s tongue-in-cheek gossipy ditty, however, added an extra layer of musical understanding.

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sacred works accounted for the second half of the program. Of the six pieces performed, Tallis’ If Ye Love Me, Praetorius’ Sing dem Herrn, and Palestrina’s Alma redemptoris were the most successful. The Tallis was a prime example of an English chorale. Sing dem Herrn, in this canonic treatment and performed antiphonally from the balconies, was especially vibrant. The choir reveled in the accented leading tone on “Herrn.” Alma redemptoris had moments of brilliance, most notably a subtle crescendo near the ending which was controlled by the altos.

It was an ambitious program and, like in the Palestrina, moments of brilliances shone through. Intonation and sagging pitch plagued the sacred works; I posit it was the unusual placement of the choir in the upper balcony as those problems weren’t nearly as noticeable in the secular half. The bass section produced some of the best sounds of the night when in chest voice. I hope the Metropolitan Chorale continues courting an audience with accessible and insightful notes for standard repertory and continues to improve their collective music making.

REVIEW:
Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City
Of Peasants and Princes
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Stone Church
1012 W. Lexington Ave., Independence, MO
For more information, visit http://mcckc.edu/blueriver/humanities/music/

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com