DaCapo / two: a second glance

[da]

(I brought work home with me; I was going to write this review tomorrow, but the work turned out to be an easier read than expected, so this becomes an earlier review).

This evening was a DaCapo concert with the Guelph Chamber Choir, rescheduled from nearly a month ago when we got plastered with snow. The theme was two choirs and two versions of some texts. The first half saw "Lobet den Herrn," a motet by Bach, paired with "Lobet de Herrn" by Sven-David Sandström; the second had "When David Heard" by Thomas Weelkes and "When David Heard" by Eric Whitacre, and "Agnus Dei" by Barber and "Agneau de Dieu" by Rupert Lang. It's clear DaCapo is the stronger choir; but I thought the Guelph Chamber Choir did fine in the second half. Roughly half the pieces were conducted by each choir's conductor; Enns did more of the talking, which was fine with me, because he's a charming guy.

The first piece was written by Enns, "Te Deum Brevis", opening with a big sound though the piece didn't do much for me. The second piece, Bach's motet, was... a bit ragged in singing (and so I also overheard from a few people who thought the same).

DaCapo's conductor, Leonard Enns, took time to deconstruct the Sandström, which has two choirs singing in harmonies but different tempos, which was fun to listen to. There was a Kyrie & Gloria Mass by Frank Martin with 12-tones, that also didn't do much for me, though I think melted_snowball would've liked; and there was a piece by Knut Nystedt, "Immortal Bach" which takes the first three phrases of Bach's Come sweet death (Come blessed rest, Come, lead me into peace) set for five choirs, each singing a different tempo. The intent, according to Enns, was to make the rest/sleep feel timeless- it worked for me, except the piece was surprisingly short, considering it was supposed to feel timeless. I wanted the patterns between the five choirs to play a bit more! Never mind how f'ing difficult I'm sure it was to sing! ;)

After the intermission, we had an introduction of Past Life Melodies (by Sarah Hopkins) from Gerard Yun, a local music prof, who demoed a digeridoo and two kinds of vocal overtones. It turned out I'd once heard a recording of this piece, and I'd liked it; the overtones worked much better in person, which isn't such a surprise... (the link above is the piece played by Chanticleer.) K., who came with me to the concert, said afterward that this piece alone was worth the price of admission. I've never heard overtones sung by 50 voices before!

Then two pieces just by DaCapo's 22 voices: "When David Heard" by Thomas Weelkes was written in the early 1600s, and had great runs and harmonies. But the Whitacre piece by the same name. God. I've heard DaCapo perform this piece three times, and it continues to put a lump in my throat. Of the 13-minute piece, the majority of it is singing the four words "O Absalom my son." I think it is the choral piece I know that most concretely embodies grief- it rages, it murmurs, it holds the refrain for many minutes, it finishes with a powerful many-part harmony of the text, "when David heard that Absalom was slain he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept, O Abaslom, my son, my son." It's chillingly beautiful.

They ended with two pieces for both choirs. "Agnus Dei" is the text Samuel Barber used to set the eight-part choir version of his famous string quartet. I hadn't known, until I read this program, that the Adagio for Strings came over 20 years before the choir version. They did a wonderful job with this. They ended with "Agneau de Dieu" by Rupert Lang, a Canadian composer, who set the Agnus Dei prayer for a solo quartet along with the choir, a quieter ending.

K and I stayed a bit for refreshments, and while she caught up with old friends who sung with DaCapo, I took the opportunity to finally thank Enns in person for so consistently bringing us such exciting music.

And now, to bed. :)

Comments

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

I could live with that (it beats mentally rickrolling oneself, for example...)

Hmm, that's a week before my sister's second child is due, so I likely will hold off and visit a little after that. I have checked whether they're performing before some of my other visits, although typically I'm there over holiday weekends when no amateur choirs hold concerts.

Hey, you mentioned you heard a recording -- by any chance do you own one? (*hint* *hint*) I could reciprocate...

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I checked; I do not. But the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chanticleer-Sound-Spirit/dp/B000AC5RVK>Chanticleer CD sounds like it might be good, so if I buy it I'll let you know.

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

Thanks for checking. I was actually thinking of a CD with that and other works by Hopkins, so if I get that & it's good, I'll try to remember to let you know too :)