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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Concerts consisting of only one composer's music are all too often problematic. If you do not like the composer you are just out of luck. Thankfully René Clausen’s compositions are among the most well written choral music of our time. The Kansas City Chorale under Charles Bruffy did his music justice on Tuesday evening, showcasing nine of the composer’s works in their robustly attended concert at Ashbury Methodist Church.

Opening with Clausen’s In Pace was almost a given, considering the Chorale’s wonderful recording of the work on their album Eternal Rest. It may have been the space or the abundance of new members but I felt more sopranos and basses could have helped because the upper dynamic range was never approached—they maxed out collectively at a forte. However, the sopranos that were there floated their pitches and the canonic passages of “Gloria Patri et filio” were still goosebump-raising. O Vos Omnes was the most intriguing piece on the first half. It explored aleatoric writing which I had not ever heard in any other Clausen piece. The texture created was rich and it certainly helped that local soprano superstar Sarah Tannehill had the solo part. The sighing opening gestures were mysterious and I wish Clausen had returned to these techniques more often.

The disjointed melodic Latin opening of Magnificat displayed the singers’ agility as they shifted between head and chest voices with assurance. Subsequent English portions did not measure up to the opening moments however but that was a fault of the piece, not the singers. The closing climax was cleverly subverted by a sudden drop in dynamics which refocused my attention for the final “Amen.” I would like to call a moratorium on the “O Magnum Mysterium” text. Clausen’s O Magnum Mysterium, like so many others, was perfectly beige—a wash of camel and taupe—music stuck in neutral.

The two-part selection, The Tyger/The Lamb brought mixed meter and hockets to the fore and the chorale negotiated these rhythmic intricacies better than they had last season. Rebecca Lloyd was rightfully dramatic in her solo portions of The Tyger. I felt The Lamb would have been more effective if the entire piece was had been softer but this set was still performed at an excellent level. i carry your heart with me after e.e. cummings’ poem was the lone secular piece on the concert and was unfortunately marred by some pitch issues and unstable clusters. There was a gorgeous moment when Tannehill performed a small descant as the choir blossomed on the words “tree of life” but that lovely moment was unfortunately out of context with the rest of the work.

The pieces of the second half were very solid. Clausen’s Prayer sets a text by Mother Theresa. His willingness to tackle the phrase “penetrate and possess my whole being” and ability to set it effectively garners at the very least a modicum of applause.

Mass for Double Chorus, commissioned by the Chorale with support from the NEA, is a worthy addition to Mass repertory. As the world premiere, it was the set piece of the concert. Spiky, thorny harmonies of the Kyrie were performed with confidence as was the glittering opening of the Gloria. The Credo, often the composer’s bane because of the sheer amount of text contained within, proved to be Clausen’s weakest link as well. It was too sectional and the performance of this movement was also below those of the others.  The basses lost some of their low notes and individual timbres emerged from the texture during the louder portions. The Agnus Dei’s incessant descending intervals on “miserere” were treated tastefully, and Bruffy and company paced the climax with patience. My one overarching criticism of the piece would be the lack of double chorus compositional techniques. There was little antiphony and the piece seemed to be more SSAATTBB than SATB+SATB. It is a small distinction, but an important one.

Closing the concert was Clausen’s Set Me as a Seal. Though not my favorite setting of the text (I prefer Pinkham’s) it was nice to see the singers and Bruffy relax after the taxing Mass. Smiles appeared on their faces as they reveled in singing. Many smiles also appeared in the audience as they had heard a wonderful sampling of a modern choral master’s oeuvre.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Chorale
Music of René Clausen
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Redemptorist Church
3333 Broadway, Kansas City, MO

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 (reviewed)
Ashbury Methodist Church
5400 75^th St, Prairie Village, KS
For more information visit http://kcchorale.org

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