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Last night was the final performance ever of the Berkshire Choral International Festival in Sheffield. After 36 years, they will no longer perform at the Berkshire School. David was singing in the chorus for this performance and has had a busy week of preparation at the school.
For the final work. they decided to do the Verdi Requiem. Last week we heard the Mahler 8th Symphony. Both works are gigantic and require enormous resources, which the Institute can provide.
The Verdi was conducted by Tom Hall, who three years ago did the St. John Passion of Bach at the Festival. Last year I felt his Bach was not in what one thinks of as Baroque style. How can one do Bach with 300 singers? This year's choice made a little more sense, considering the large chorus that the Festival provides. The Springfield Symphony again provided the orchestral support.
Jennifer Check
The soloists were Jennifer Check, soprano, Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano, John Bellemer, tenor, and Kevin Deas, bass-baritone. Unfortunately they did not prove to be a well balanced quartet for the many ensemble movements of the work.
The excellent lecturer again was Laura Stanfield Prichard.
Ann McMahon Quintero
Ms. Quintero had the voice that seemed most suited to Verdi; a robust, well focused sound with the necessary vocal range for the mezzo role.
Ms.Check, on the other hand, did not. The voice was too small and did not soar over the chorus as it should have. Of course, when one has Leontyne Price in one's ear, no one will ever satisfy.
John Bellemer
Mr. Bellemer's tenor voice was at times stentorian but lacked finesse and Mr. Deas, again, had a voice a bit too small for the work. A pleasant sound but too covered for my taste.
Kevin Deas
The chorus and orchestra performed well and Mr. Hall did a fairly good job of keeping everyone together. Last week's concert under Kent Tritle was much more convincing in terms of managing 400-some musicians and providing a fine musical experience.
I know the Institute will be missed in future years. Next year they will be in Saratoga Springs for a week with another week at Goucher College in Towson, MD.
One way to make a cup of coffee is to take one teaspoon of instant coffee, add boiling water, and drink it.
Or one can grind coffee beans, put them in some kind of coffee maker and allow it to brew slowly, before enjoying the result.
I don't like coffee and never drink it, so the following is from hearsay only: Instant coffee tastes like dish-water, brewed coffee is heavenly.
What does this have to do with Bach's St. John Passion you may ask.
Preparing a large oratorio takes time. At the Berkshire Choral Festival performance, which Alice and I attended last night, and in which David sang in the chorus, we got instant coffee. In coffee and in Bach you need to grind your beans!
It is almost impossible in one week's time, with a 230 voice choir of mostly amateurs, to put together a convincing performance of this great work, or, really, any large work. To begin with, a chorus of 230 singers is hardly the ideal Bach group. It is almost certain to be unwieldy in fast moving passages. While is it impressive to hear this many voices singing the chorales, so marvelously harmonized by the great master of the Baroque, it leaves much to be desired in the choruses which are often fast and dramatic.
Tom Hall, the guest conductor for this past week, took a romantic approach to the work. Having performed the work myself, having heard John Ferris's performances with the Harvard University Choir, and more recently, a performance by the great Jane Glover with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, to my ears, this was not the way to go.
The overall sound of this week's chorus was better than last week's, which did the Brahms Requiem, which is actually a Romantic choral work. But in the fast moving sections it sounded ponderous with lumpy runs and exaggerated dynamics.
The thing that bothered me the most was at final cadences, where there was a large pause between the penultimate note and the final chord. When studying Baroque music with Gustav Leonhardt, I learned that those two notes should go quickly without a pause between them: ta-da, not ta.............da! In this performance we often got the latter. This was just not an authentic performance using the information we have about the Baroque.
The soloists were Mary Wilson, soprano, who has a lovely voice and sang well, Krista River, mezzo-soprano, who came into her own in "Es ist vollbracht", Charles Blandy, tenor, who had trouble making music out of the admittedly difficult tenor solos, and Jesse Blumberg, baritone, who sang well.
The vocal star of the show was Kevin Deas, bass-baritone, who as Jesus sang with a rich, dark voice filled with emotion and drama.
Less successful was Mark Molomont, the Evangelist, who struggled vocally, often either pinching high notes or lapsing into falsetto for a note or two unconvincingly.
Sean Taylor, bass, as Pilate sang well if somewhat un-emotionally, and smaller roles were sung by Madelyn Ross, soprano, Matthew Swanson, tenor, and Robert Martin, baritone.
In my opinion the purpose of the Festival seems to be to give singers a chance to sing major works they love in the beautiful setting of the Berkshire School. Each week a different set of people, for the most part, spend the time preparing that week's work. For the singers it is, I'm sure, an exciting and wonderful experience.
But for those of us in the audience, considering last week's dull Brahms and this weeks Bach, it doesn't quite work.
Next Saturday David and I are scheduled to hear Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. We'll see how that fares.
