This evening I attended a choral concert presented by the very fine Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus at the Ethel Walker School in Canton, CT. The chorus is directed by Gabriel Löfvall, an energetic and accurate conductor.
The main reason I was at the concert was to hear my young student, soprano Katie Weiser, who has been working with me this past year.The program opened with Arvo Pärt's Cantate Domino Canticum Novum. Pärt is not among my favorite composers and I really did not see the point of programing this brief piece to open the program.
Cantata BWV 29 of Bach, 'Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir', was then sung with enthusiasm. Good choral tone and accurate reading of the musical lines. Of the soloists, Jeffrey Conrad Soto, tenor, and Miguel Angel Vasquez, bass, seemed most at ease with their parts. The soprano had a very light, covered voice that was barely audible and the mezzo a bravura, punchy style that was uncharacteristic of the genre. An excellent small orchestra accompanied the cantata.
The final piece on the program was Haydn's Mass #8 in C Major (Mariazellermesse). It is a delightful work that contains all the energy and humor for which the composer is famous. The same tenor, bass and alto sang in this work. Sarah Hager Johnston and Katie Weiser were the sopranos: Ms. Johnston in the quartet and Katie in two solos. Both sang very well. Ms. Johnston needs to find better projection for her voice, but it is a sweet voice and is easily produced. Katie sang her solos beautifully, including a number of trills that we had worked on in lessons.
A real trill is a difficult ornament to perfect. It should involve two pitches, not just one pitch that wobbles around. Katie has learned how to trill. We used a number of my 'trill exercises' to obtain a true ornament. She also prepared her part of the work on one week's notice! And performed beautifully. (Here speaks a proud teacher!) This is called being thrust into the real world of music in one giant leap.
Often this how a career is begun. My friend, the late Dusolina Gianinni, was a student of Marcella Sembrich in New York City many years ago. Damrosch was to conduct a première peformance of a new work by an American composer. The soprano who was engaged to sing the solo parts became ill at the last minute and had to cancel her appearance. He called Madame Sembrich and asked if she had someone who could fill in at the last moment. She recommended Dusolina, who with one rehearsal sang the piece magnificently. Her review appeared on the front page of the New York Times. I met Dusolina in Seefeld, Austria in 1968. John and I spent several days squiring her and her husband around in our little car. This was one of the many fascinating stories she told me about her extraordinary career.
These days one is lucky to get a Times review for classical music at all. 'Fings ain't what they use to be'
