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The 36-member William Baker Festival Singers opened their 11th season from the choir gallery in the rear of the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, singing Samuel Barber's well-known and much-performed Agnus Dei.  Barber's otherworldly sounds were assisted by the choir's location, creating an additional sense of distance to good effect.  The singing was beautiful with solid intonation, a laudatory feat in itself.

Stephen Paulus's Pilgrim's Hymn is a lovely setting of a poem by Michael Dennis Browne, excerpted from Paulus's opera The Three Hermits. The simple syllabic setting was a good foil for the Barber.  

From the front of the cathedral, Baker paired a brilliant homophonic Baroque work with one whose simultaneous melodic lines (polyphonic) are independent of each other.  It was during the beautiful singing of Tallis' A New Commandment that the choir's rather unfocussed, blurred tone didn't change appreciably.  This was the trade-off.  While making the choir's admirable blend much more accessible, it tended to rob them of the possibility of changing the sound to reflect the ethos of each piece.  This proved to be the case during the most of the concert.

 Michelle Patton sang well in an arrangement of the American folk song In the cool of the day, the first of three folk song settings, all capably sung.  The choir seemed to be truly in its element here.  During My song in the night, the singing was without audible diphthongs in words like My (mah), Night (naht) and Joy (jaw).  While this technique did manage to keep the diction uniform, it was a distracting aberration from standard American English.  However, Melissa Overton sang this beautifully.

The centerpiece of the concert was Sir John Tavener's Village Wedding.  The music moved back and forth from tenor soloist to choir to treble choir and from lively text to chant-like responses.  Jacob Rodman did fine tenor work.  Tavener's piece is a modest, but not easy, masterpiece, and Baker's singers are to be congratulated for tackling it.  There remained a few loose ends to tidy up, but the piece was well suited to the choir, despite some places when the pitch tended to wander.

William Dreyfoos, the arranger of a set of Holocaust songs, was present to hear the presentation of his work.  The songs proved to be simple and moving, with plaintive eastern-European inspired melodies, and Dreyfoos wisely didn't try to overburden them with complexity in these settings.  Melissa Ann Shallberg was a touching soprano soloist.

The program closed with three African-America- inspired works. Spirituals are a specialty of the choir, and Baker always pleases his audience and singers by including them in most concert programs.  

A setting of Psalm 23 by the noted orchestral and choral composer Adolphus Hailstork, was the final piece.  Hailstork, through his skills as an experienced composer and augmented by his African-American heritage, managed to deliver a work that balanced seemingly different worlds, even sliding into a gospel-almost-bluesy feeling for a while.  Pianist Wayne Smith played beautifully, as always.

William Baker has built a good choir and a loyal audience.  He seems to have hit upon ways to aid the enjoyment, credibility and success of his ensemble.  The group rotates many spirituals and folk songs over time, creating a repertory that the singers can sing from memory and can be used for a good portion of many concerts, therefore ensuring that not every singer is preparing an entire concert at the beginning of every season.  

He has also chosen to have the group sing with a tone that gives quick cohesion and blend.  Of course, the downside of that choice is that almost everything tends to sound rather alike, although it must be noted that the same thing can be said of many fine ensembles that choose to make a particular sound choice identifiable as their "sound."  

A good concert by a good choir offers an enjoyable afternoon. 

By Arnold Epley

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)