Reviews

Holiday Wrap
Brief reviews of seasonal music, picked from a wide selection of special holiday music experiences
Review by John Campbell

VWU's Christmas Celebration at Hofheimer Theatre, December 7, 2018
The sweet gentleness of the birth of an innocent babe was captured beautifully in an evening of music by the Virginia Wesleyan University Choirs, the twenty-seven voices of the Camerata and the beautifully matched twelve voices drawn from this group as Vox Vera, conducted by Bryson Mortenson with George Stone, pianist. Texts were printed in a cheerfully colored program and the audience was invited to join in two (group-sing) selections.

Electronic bells, with colored lights inside each, added to the magic of the evening from the opening Sing We Now of Christmas (arr Fred Prentice, 1923-1994) to the closing Gloria by Dan Forrest (b. 1978) from his LUX: The Dawn from on High.

Veni, veni Emmanuel (O come Emmanuel) invited the King of Peace to heal our world's sad divisions, followed by Et Misericordia set by Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980) and sung by soloist Dante Copeland—”his mercy continues from generation to generation for those who fear him.” Still anticipating the great event, we heard E'en so Lord Jesus Quickly Come set by Paul Manz (1919-2009). Invited by the choir, the audience joined in to celebrate with Angels We Have Heard on High.

Soloists Serena Smith and Thomas Reinhold sang I Wonder as I Wander written by John Jacob Niles based on a fragment of music Niles heard while recording folk tunes in Murphy, North Carolina, July, 1933. Opening with the choir's brooding, deep humming was enlivened when Ms. Smith's delicate soprano voice sang the text, creating a feeling of the broad night sky and the wonderment of the events. Mr Reinhold added weight to the sensual ending words “cause he was the King.”

Gaudete! (Rejoice) (arr. Michael McGlynn, b. 1964) is one of our favorites and featured soloists Jennifer Vega, Morgan Boyd, Adam Kurek and Myles Baynard. The whole chorus sang O Magnum Mysterium (Ivo Antongini, B. 1963) holding lighted candles. Pianist George Stone's arrangement of Silent Night/Still Still Still and Mack Wilberg's (b. 1955) arrangement of Away in the Manger followed.

After the group sing of Hark the Herald Angels Sing we were given a rare treat from Christmas long ago. Christmas, or The Good Fairy, a play by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896,) made the point that anonymous gifts to needy people we know of is a better way to celebrate the holy event. Eleanor, the young woman played by Abby Horgan, was fretting about what to give her well-to-do friends and relatives and was taught by Miss Lester, played by 2016 alum Khari Chayé, the true meaning of Christmas. Each section concluded with an appropriate song: Catalonian Carol (arr. Dale Warland, b. 1932)—”What can we give to the child of Mary?, In the Bleak Midwinter (arr. George Stone) and A Cradle Hymn (David von Kampen, b. 1986)—“Soft and easy is thy cradle, Coarse and hard thy Savior lay, When his birthplace was a stable and his softest bed was hay.”

The Ubi Caritas (Ola Gjeilo, b. 1978) and Gloria by Dan Forrest (b. 1978) completed this enfolding, peaceful evening.

VWU: Johann Sebastian Bach & Friends
February 25, 2019, Hofheimer Theater
Review by John Campbell

The Center for Sacred Music at Virginia Wesleyan University followed up last year's Bach evening with an expanded program for this year with a quartet of vocalists, the student chorus—The Wesleyan Camerata, conducted by Bryson Mortensen—and the Wren Masters (4), who met through their involvement in early music performance at William and Mary. They were joined by four additional Baroque instrumentalists for three Bach cantatas and a concerto by Telemann.

They opened with Concerto in A minor for Recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo TWV 43:a3 by Georg Phillip Telemann (1681-1767). Three members of the Wren Masters, Ruth van Baak Griffioen, recorder; Sarah Glosson, Baroque cello; and Thomas Marshall, harpsichord, were joined by Allison M. Smith, Baroque oboe. Note: all the string instruments were Baroque and were played Baroque period style. In this stylistic period, a basso continuo provides the bass line and may be played by a group of instruments or by a single one. Here it was the harpsichord and cello.

The opening Adagio offered a gently undulating motif introduced by the oboe and taken up by the violin and lastly by the recorder. The textures preserve a delicate transparency throughout. Brisk tempos in the Allegro are fugal with vigorous passage work both in solo and continuo parts. The Adagio third movement has a tender means of expression through delicately played sororities and interweaving of parts. The sparkling Vivace has rhythmic energy in both unison and solo virtuoso passages for the three soloists with dazzling moments and duets of recorder and oboe. It was a wonderful experience in the intimate Hofheimer Theater, possibly the last concert we attend there before the new Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center opens on April 1.

I've written this description with much help from John Eliot Gardner's Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. The cantata Jesu, Der du Meine Seele, BWV 78 (Jesus, it is by you that my soul) opens with an immense choral lament in G minor on a par with both his Passions for scale, intensity and power of expression. Bach casts it as a passacaglia on a chromatically descending ostinato with the "ground acting as a counterbalance to a hymn tune and weaves all manner of contrapuntal lines around it.” Gardner then asks, was Bach stealing the preacher's thunder by the eloquence of his musical oratory? It is one of those cantata opening movements that rivets your attention.

Next came a delicious, almost frivolous duet—a playful romp that ends with “May your gracious countenance smile upon us.” Alas, the reprieve is temporary as the tenor's recitative with its angular vocal line of remorse at his “leprosy of sin” follows. A graceful recorder with a catchy dance-like tune cleanses the guilt through Jesus' sacrifice. The bass recitative describes the details of Jesus' pain that prompts the singer to offer to Jesus his heart. The bass aria that follows is about a Christian's confidence in the hands of the savior. In the ending Chorale the audience was invited to join the choir and soloists to sing joyfully of being “rescued for eternity.”

Widerstehe doch er Sünde, BWV 54 (Resist sin, indeed) (1714) was written for alto/counter-tenor. We know it by both voice types from CDs. Charles Humphries, counter-tenor, was the only voice in this three movement cantata accompanied by three baroque violins (Susan Via, Susannah Livingston, Jennifer Edenborn), viola (Jennifer Myer), baroque cello and harpsichord. In the eight minute aria “Resist sin indeed lest its poison seize you” is repeated again and again with every changing musical setting. The word seize elongates and grows in power with repetition. The settings are beautiful and seductive, like sin itself. The recitative takes a bit longer than a minute and touches on the dark, distant key of B-flat minor and leads into the remarkable final aria, a four-part fugue that begins with a chromatic descent and ends with a slithering, twisting snake-like tail on the word “Teufel” (devil) while the instrumental music chugs along in a steady measured pace. (From liner notes by George B. Stauffer.)

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140 (Awake, the voice is calling us) (1731) is the best of several cantatas that treat the subject of the bridegroom, Jesus, eager to receive his bride, the Christian soul in mystic union. This scenario had been part of musical tradition since Monteverdi, Schutz and Palestrina (c. 1600).

The opening chorus calls the virgins to awaken, trim their lamps and get ready. In response to the text, Bach's music is charged with excitement and anticipation. It is scored for a four-part choir and the Wesleyan Camerata shone brightly in overlapping layers of sound with precision and beauty.

Tenor Lynch's recitative strengthened the message of anticipation: “The Bridegroom comes, he like a young stag leaps along the hills...rouse yourselves!” The duet aria is a dialogue between the soul (soprano Youmans) and the Savior (bass Yoder), elaborately accompanied by the strings. In the closing Jesus says “Come, dear soul!” The singing was very beautiful.

The tenor chorale has a lovely tune in the unison violins and viola with harpsichord continuo. This is followed by a recitative for the lyric bass where the Savior exhorts the soul, His bride, to yield to His love. Then comes the ecstatic duet for soprano and bass with oboe obbligato. Christ and His bride are ecstatically singing, with Ms. Smith playing oboe in duet with Soul (Billye Brown Youmans), soon followed by bass voice with cello and harpsichord continuo. It was glorious!

In closing, I want to mention last year's Johann Sebastian Bach and Friends (March 5, 2018) in the close quarters of Monumental Chapel. This year we missed the baroque horn player Keith Griffioen (Ruth's husband), who is a stylish performer as well as a nuclear physicist who is in Germany on a research project this year. Ruth flew home to be part of this grand Bach fest.