Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental Mass in b minor is among the greatest artistic creations of Western music. Vast in concept, profound in spiritual depth, and remarkable for the diversity and intricacy of its musical language and architecture, the work inspires musicians and listeners alike.As part of its ongoing commitment to cultivating artistic partnerships among regional arts organizations, Bloomington Chamber Singers engaged the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra for this production. A professional ensemble founded in 1999, the orchestra has rapidly become one of the region's most respected interpreters of seventeenth and eighteenth century music. We performed this magnificent music with instruments and timbres that reflect Bach's time and taste, and in collaboration with musicians who are specialists in the performance practices of this period. The two-hour work is scored for eight-part chorus and soloists, strings, winds, and brass. Its compositional techniques represent the mature genius of Bach, and are a compendium of his compositional styles. BCS Artistic Director Gerald Sousa, in his twenty-seventh season with the sixty-voice ensemble, conducted. Two performances were offered: 8pm Saturday evening, April 13th, and 3pm the next day, Sunday, April 14th at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church.
By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com Apr 15, 2013Halfway, an hour into Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor — after plentiful requests for God’s mercy (Kyrie eleison), expressions of praise (Gloria) and statements of belief (Credo) — the text turns to the emotional heart of the matter at hand: the descent from heaven of God’s son, made incarnate, the Crucifixion and Resurrection.Bach supplied three powerful multi-part choruses, the first somber, the second grief-laden, the third explosively jubilant. For the chorus, handling the technical details and interpretive responsibilities becomes not only formidable but critically imperative. There should be no musical lapses; there should, however, be an impassioned, even impetuous arc of moods.On Saturday evening in St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, the Bloomington Chamber Singers, ably aided and abetted by the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and a handful of soloists, met the requirements, offering the close to venue-filling audience a commendably sensitive and focused reading of those central moments and, indeed, Bach’s full masterpiece. A second performance followed on Sunday afternoon.It was an act of courage on the part of Gerald Sousa, the longtime music director of the Bloomington Chamber Singers, to take on the B Minor. But that has been his intrepid way, determined always to treat his talented but part-time and amateur choir like pros. Give them a real challenge, he will tell you, and the singers will work diligently to conquer it.The Bach was chosen as this season’s major challenge, and conquer his choristers did. Not all was perfection, but expressive intensity rarely waned, and technical values earned high marks. As conductor, Sousa certainly seemed in continuing control, drawing from the musicians, the vocal and instrumental, their best, perhaps in some instances, then some.The choruses — from the brief and striking Kyrie that opens the Mass to the faith-affirming and jubilant “Dona nobis pacem” (“Grant us peace”) that ended it — were delivered persuasively. The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, with numerous familiar faces for devotees of the Bloomington Early Music Festival and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, was bedrock solid in support.The well-selected soloists included soprano Colleen Hughes, an IU Jacobs School of Music alum active as freelancing guest artist and now full-time elementary school music teacher; prominent countertenor Steven Rickards, currently on the music faculty at Butler University, and three advanced students from the Jacobs School: mezzo-soprano Jacquelyn Matava, tenor Travis Bloom and bass Daniel Lentz.When in the mix with the chorus or each other, they added expressive firepower. Those also assigned one of Bach’s harrowingly difficult arias, of which there are several in the B Minor, treated them with contextual respect if not always full vocal refinement and color, but then, few singers find full comfort handling this tricky material, Bach at his most intractable.In other words, shortcomings were minor. Indeed, with Maestro Sousa at the helm, performers and music fused this Mass in B Minor into a stirring event, one of the season’s high points.(link)
Here is the review of our concert in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Music review: Maestro, music and performers make Mass a highlight of season
Masses & Madrigals—Ancient & Modern
Over the ages, Western composers have turned repeatedly to certain musical forms. The most enduring (and challenging) of these forms is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass. Throughout the ages the Mass text has inspired some of Western civilization's most profound compositions. Its secular counterpart was the madrigal, or partsong, a form that originated in Florence in the mid-16th century and quickly spread throughout Europe and England, where it influenced and transformed regional variants such as the French chanson, German lied, and English partsong. Much of its great popularity came from the profound and emotional texts of contemporary poets that inspired composers, particularly during the late 16th century when madrigals reached their maturity. Though the madrigal waned in popularity as the Baroque era blossomed, it has returned in recent years to attract contemporary composers, many of whom were drawn to the same great Renaissance poets that inspired the early madrigalists.Masses & Madrigals—Ancient & Modern, then, was a concert of comparison and contrast. Two Masses anchored the two halves of the concert. The Mass for Four Voices by the English composer William Byrd (1539-1623) is one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance. Its counterpoint is brilliant and clear, its textures mystical and evocative. Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) is one of the most prominent composers of contemporary sacred music. His Missa syllabica is quite different in compositional style from Byrd's Mass, yet both works are anchored by a deep and profound spiritual conviction and respect for the text.Over the course of his life, the great Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) published nine books of madrigals. These remarkable volumes show a fascinating evolution from unaccompanied declamatory works found in the early books to a fully-realized concertato style in Book VIII, a style that reflects the use of continuo and the conventions of opera, a form invented by Monteverdi himself in 1607 that rapidly grew in popularity and swept throughout Europe during the 17th century. The contemporary American composer Morton Lauridsen (b. 1943) composed his Madrigali: Six 'Firesongs' on Italian Renaissance Poems in 1989. Lauridsen states in his preface that they are derivative from and indebted to to Monteverdi for their style and emotion.This was a fascinating exploration of the sacred and the secular, the old and the new.
Here is the review of our concert in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Singers give admirable concert
By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com Nov 12, 2012...The Bloomington Chamber Singers opened their season Saturday evening in a packed First Christian Church, fully ready to regale those present with “Masses and Madrigals, Ancient and Modern.”The challenging program split not only the musical fare but the chorus.Part 1, pre-intermission, was devoted to the 1593 Mass for Four Voices by British composer William Byrd and selected madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, dating from late in the 16th century to early in the 17th. BCS music director Gerald Sousa led that part of the program, using about two dozen of the choir’s singers.After intermission, assistant conductor Greg Geehern guided a somewhat larger contingent through the 1996 “Missa Syllabica for Chorus and Organ” of Arvo Part and selections from Morten Lauridsen’s 1987 “Madrigali: Six ‘Firesongs’ on Italian Renaissance Poems.”Mood was a dominant feature throughout: urgently somber in Byrd’s contrapuntal Mass, with its transcendental ending; the Monteverdi madrigals, so laden with imagery as the singers evoked rapturous romance or tormented love; the Estonian Part’s restrained modern extension of the Renaissance Mass, its traditions distinctly modified by introduced dissonances and pronounced silences; Lauridsen’s devotion to Monteverdi and his contemporary, Gesualdo, in spirited madrigals based on Renaissance love-and-loss poetry and vocalized so that old subtly blended with new.Sousa and Geehern accomplished much with their choruses, fully serving the music. A small instrumental ensemble added to the Monteverdi. Christopher Lynch provided organ accompaniment for the Part. Admirable concert.(link)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa solemnis, op. 123
Bloomington Chamber Singers presented Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in D, op. 123, on Saturday, April 21st, 2012, at 8pm at the Evangelical Community Church, 503 South High St. in Bloomington. Music Director Gerald Sousa conducted the eighty-voice choral ensemble and orchestra. Joining BCS as guest artists were soloists Meghan Dewald, soprano; Sarah Ballman, mezzo-soprano; Michael Day, tenor; and Samuel Spade, bass-baritone.One of the pillars of Western choral-orchestral music, Missa solemnis was composed at the peak of Beethoven’s creative output, and is universally recognized as a work of extraordinary musical and spiritual importance.
Here is the review of our concert in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Review: Beethoven Mass, one-act operas show dedicated workmanship
By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com Apr 23, 2012Listening to Saturday evening’s performance of the Beethoven “Missa Solemnis” in Bloomington’s Evangelical Community Church, one could imagine the composer laboring over the score, a primary object of attention during four of his later years.Conductor Gerald Sousa, his Bloomington Chamber Singers and four young soloists from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, along with a gathered-together orchestra, really seemed to have gotten it. This very personal “Solemn Mass” comes from a composer who could no longer actually hear what he was writing except in his imagination, from a man who recognized a host of shortcomings in his character. The music seesaws from heralding shouts to God that he, Beethoven, be heard and beseeching whispers to God that he be forgiven.Sousa extracted from his musicians those desperate cries for attention and pleas for understanding. The climaxes expressing God’s glory shook the rafters. The supplications hovered in the air, almost haltingly, as if questioning acceptance from on high.What one heard from this community chorus was remarkable. Even its rough-around-the-edges moments were made to sound just right, remindful of Beethoven’s struggle with the score and his own conscience. Maestro Sousa’s grasp of the music and dedicated workmanship as choral leader made that possible, as also they brought about the quieter effusions, here imbued with smooth radiance.The soloists — soprano Meghan Dewald, mezzo Sarah Ballman, tenor Michael Day and bass-baritone Samuel Spade — proved a key ingredient in the performance’s success, lending their fine voices to the endeavor. They, too, appeared to be deep into the spirit of the occasion, aware of an interpretation designed to capture a composer’s internal and musical struggles.A fifth soloist was the orchestra’s concertmaster, Benjamin Hoffman. He played the important and extended violin solo in the Benedictus exquisitely. Hoffman did his share, too, as concertmaster, helping to make the orchestra a contributing element to the whole of this exceptional “Missa Solemnis.”...(link)
Christmas in Columbus
In addition to our annual Messiah Sing, this year Bloomington Chamber Singers will be performing a free concert at 7pm on Sunday, December 18 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Columbus, IN. The concert program will include a selection of 17th-century Christmas motets, one of J.S. Bach’s most famous cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 140, and James Whitbourn’s “Son of God Mass”, featuring Keegan White, saxophonist, and Greg Geehern, organist. We'll also perform a number of carols and other traditional Christmas songs. Please join us!
Annual Community Messiah Sing
For over 20 years, this FREE Bloomington Christmas tradition draws hundreds of singers who come together to sing Part One and the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Handel's beloved oratorio, Messiah. Conductor Gerald Sousa, now in his 23rd year as Music Director/Conductor of Bloomington Chamber Singers, will lead the combined singers and a chamber orchestra. Admission is free, but please bring a canned good to contribute towards a local food bank donation.In addition to our annual Messiah Sing, this year Bloomington Chamber Singers will be performing a free concert at 7pm on Sunday, December 18 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Columbus, IN. The concert program will include a selection of 17th-century Christmas motets, one of J.S. Bach’s most famous cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 140, and James Whitbourn’s “Son of God Mass”, featuring Keegan White, saxophonist, and Greg Geehern, organist. We'll also perform a number of carols and other traditional Christmas songs. Please join us!
Peace On Earth: Music of the Season
In addition to our annual Messiah Sing, this year the Bloomington Chamber Singers performed Peace on Earth: Music of the Season, a concert including a selection of Christmas motets by the renowned 17th-century Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, one of J.S. Bach’s most famous cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 140, James Whitbourn's "Son of God Mass", and Friede auf Erden (“Peace on Earth”), Arnold Schoenberg’s remarkable setting of the passionate essay on peace written by the Swiss poet Conrad Meyer. Joining BCS for our performance of Whitbourn's "Son of God Mass" was Keegan White, saxophonist, and Greg Geehern, organist.
Here is the review of our concert in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Varied ‘Peace on Earth’ provided a revelation
By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com | December 5, 2011The program was titled “Peace on Earth, Music of the Season.” As given by the Bloomington Chamber Singers, it attracted a capacity crowd to the First United Methodist Church on Friday evening. And from pre-concert brass exhortations by the likes of Monteverdi, Palestrina, Praetorius and Gabrieli, all written about 400 years ago, to concert’s end, the last notes of the 20th century chorale “Friede auf Erden” (“Peace on Earth”) by Arnold Schoenberg, the music proved a revelation.The ensemble’s music director, Gerald Sousa, had pieced together a remarkably varied bill of fare that, nevertheless, as a package carried out the seasonal theme of “Peace on Earth.”As one listened to this well-trained local chorus of singers from all walks of life, a response of awe kept cropping up that 70 members, each busy with the concerns of professional and everyday existence, had devoted so much time and emotional energy to prepare this gift of music, while also getting ready for the annual “Messiah Sing” on Dec. 11 and a performance of Beethoven’s challenging “Missa Solemnis” next April.Credit their loyalty and credit Sousa, their committed leader. As a team, they once again rose to the occasion: first in more music by Praetorius, the familiar and favored “In dulci jubilo,” and Gabrieli, a soaring “O magnum mysterium” with countertenor Brennan Hall blending angelically from the balcony and, additionally, both an exultation (“Hodie Christus natus est,” “Today Christ is born”) and a benediction. The benediction, “In ecclesiis,” asked for solo contributions, here supplied by four sweetly-voiced guests from the Jacobs School: soprano Arwen Myers, tenor Asitha Tennekoon, bass-baritone Gavin Hayes, and, again, Hall.The concert’s first half concluded with one of Bach’s most admired cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (“Awake, calls the voice to us”), a joyous work that brought well crafted and flexible sound from the chorus and notable contributions in arias and recitatives from Myers, Tennekoon and Hayes. Throughout, organist Gregory Geehern and varying combinations of instrumentalists completed scoring requirements.Geehern was particularly important in the post-intermission surprise, the “Son of God Mass,” written in 2001 by the British composer James Whitbourn, an astoundingly beautiful and intense composition that matches organ, chorus, and, of all things, soprano saxophone.The combination turned out to be magical. Supporting words of love, of happiness, of grief, of hope, the saxophone, much like a pure-voiced and passionate soprano, tonally beseeched, prayed and hauntingly raised emotional fervor. Keegan White, who makes his living as director of bands at Eastern Greene Schools, was nothing short of wonderful on his sax; his performance was flawless and penetratingly soulful.Guided by conductor Sousa, the Chamber Singers added hushes and hallelujahs reverentially and in adroit fashion.The concert ended with Schoenberg’s 1907 cry for a better world, “Friede auf Erden,” the composer’s last work shaped in the harmonic style that had suffused music for centuries. He would thereafter explore a 12-tone world. But this 10-minute cantata — close to lyrical when the focus in the text is on peace and good will, close to atonal when strife and evil hold sway — adheres, in both form and polyphony, to what for so long had been. Conductor, chorus and orchestra gave the work a sumptuous and stirring treatment.(link)
Carmina Burana
On April 17, 2011, the Bloomington Chamber Singers will partner with the Camerata Orchestra in a performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana at the IU Auditorium on the campus of Indiana University, Bloomington.
Freely Offered, Freely Received
Assistant Conductor Gregory Geehern will lead the Bloomington Chambers Singers in a concert of works by Robert Schumann, Aaron Copland and Irving Fine. Included on the concert will be Fine's delightful cycle, “The Choral New Yorker,” based on texts selected from the pages of the venerable magazine.Bloomington Chamber Singers, a dedicated group of 70 persons currently in its 41st season, provides an opportunity for accomplished community singers to perform major choral works under the direction of a professional conductor at a high level of musical excellence.
Annual Community Messiah Sings
For over 20 years, this FREE Bloomington Christmas tradition draws hundreds of singers who come together to sing Part One and the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Handel's beloved oratorio, Messiah. Conductor Gerald Sousa, now in his 21st year as Music Director/Conductor of Bloomington Chamber Singers, will lead the combined singers and a chamber orchestra. Admission is free, but please bring a canned good to contribute towards a local food bank donation.
Hymnody of Earth
Bloomington Chamber Singers is pleased to announce the opening concert of their 41st consecutive season:
“Hymnody of Earth”
A choral song cycle by Malcolm Dalglish with poetry and readings by Wendell Berry
November 12, 2010, 8:00pm at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater
114 East Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN
http://themester.indiana.edu/events/hymnody.shtml
Malcolm Dalglish’s Hymnody of Earth is a song cycle based on the words of Wendell Berry, whose poetry over the past half century provides us a vision of a sustainable relationship with each other and nature. Combining voice with the haunting sounds of hammer dulcimer, frame drums and shakers, Dalglish builds on Berry’s words to create songs and soundscapes rooted in the folk styles of North America. Since its debut over 20 years ago, Hymnody of Earth has become a growing and ever changing song cycle performed worldwide. This theatrical, new version will feature a special appearance by poet and Patten lecturer Wendell Berry and the exciting collaboration of two very different vocal groups.Bloomington Chamber Singers, conducted by Gerald Sousa, will be joined by hammer dulcimer player Malcolm Dalglish and his vocal ensemble, the Ooolites, with instrumentalists and dancers. The multimedia concert is presented with support from The Patten Foundation and Indiana University’s Themester program, a multidisciplinary initiative of IU’s College of Arts & Sciences designed to increase community awareness on issues surrounding sustainability and environmental stewardship. For more information about the Themester program, please click the image link below:
Tickets are available at: the Sunrise Box Office (323-3020, adjacent to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater) on-line (www.buskirkchumley.org) or from any BCS member. Prices are: $20 general admission, $10 students.
18th Annual Messiah Sing
Our 18th annual community Messiah sing! We will sing the first section — plus the glorious “Hallelujah” chorus — of Handel’s familiar and always rewarding sacred oratorio. We sit by sections so you can sing your part in the choruses and the arias, while the recitatives will be sung by soloists from the chorus. Bring your own score, buy an inexpensive score at the door, or borrow one of the small number we have to lend.Admission is free, but in the sharing tradition of the season, we ask that you bring donations for the local food banks.
Pure Genius
Bach: Ein feste Burg, S. 80Mozart: Vesperae de dominica, K. 321Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
March 28, 2006Singing the Singers' in the 35th yearMusic review: Bloomington Chamber SingersBy Peter Jacobi, Herald Times
Music, of course, was the most important ingredient Saturday evening when the Bloomington Chamber Singers offered their spring program of works by Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Samuel Barber, a program appropriately labeled "Pure Genius."
But numbers couldn't be ignored. The concert served to mark the ensemble's 35 years of existence, its 18th under current music director Gerald Sousa. It attracted an audience that came very close to filling the spacious new sanctuary of the Evangelical Community Church, meaning it must have attracted one of the choir's largest gathering of listeners ever.
On the back cover of the printed program, one read: "35 years … 167 concerts … 630 members … 2,863 donors … 1,000s of words … 1,000,000s of notes … 1 goal: Sing Great Music." And great music most certainly was sung: on this occasion by the 60 current members of the BCS, assisted by an orchestral ensemble nearly as large. Fifteen former Chamber Singers were in the audience. And to one loyal member, Austin Caswell, who died March 1, the concert was dedicated.
Conductor Sousa chose works of challenge and bracing contrast to show off the courage and achievements of his singers. In the process, he proved once more how effective a teacher he is, so capable of coaxing more than the best out of his crew, diverse individuals with varying backgrounds and talents, most of them part-timers as musicians but united by a love of song.
Sousa opened with one of Bach's most admired cantatas, No. 80, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," built on the Martin Luther hymn. The chorus sang with confidence and needed power. The orchestra played in complementary fashion. Four soloists - one, alto Julie Grindle, from within the ranks of the chorus - added to the luster of the performance. Bass Michael Weyandt, tenor Daniel Shirley and soprano Angelique Zuluaga, all now studying their craft at IU, completed the quartet, and each seemed to have the measure of Bach's sometimes dangerously embellished line.
The three from the Music School returned for further duties in Mozart's "Vesperae sollenes de Dominica," joined this time by another Chamber Singer, alto Susan Sullivan. This six-movement vesper, inspired by Psalm 109, contains gorgeous material that, in turn, seemed to inspire Sousa's collected throng. The chorus sang resolutely and resonantly. The soloists were fully up to the task. Soprano Zuluaga, in the work's "Laudate Dominum," contributed as stunning a sample of free-floating, unfettered and yet beautifully controlled vocalization as this reviewer has heard in quite a while.
A choral version of Barber's popular, gentle Adagio for Strings, using traditional words from the Agnus Dei in the mass, was performed with rapturous tones. That made transition to the contrapuntal, effusive "Symphony of Psalms" by Stravinsky even more dramatic. Saturday's reading of this bold piece, deftly balancing its distinctive choral and instrumental elements, proved nothing short of praiseworthy.
Let it be said that at 35, hurray, the BCS is in exceptionally good form.
Music of the English Church
For the opening concert of the Bloomington Chamber Singers' 35th season Saturday evening, one devoted to "Music of the Church of England," conductor Gerald Sousa – seeking a larger space – ended up using not the local house of worship representing that denomination but at least one devoted to the religious inspiration of an Englishman, John Wesley, Bloomington's First United Methodist Church.
It made for a comfortable choice and, acoustically speaking, an excellent one. The choir sounded awfully good, not only, of course, because of where the concert was performed but because leader Sousa, as one has learned to expect, had prepared the singers well. This community chorus has become a treat to hear and a treasure to cherish.
Sousa chose music ranging from the 16th century to the 20th and found a way of including a Who's Who of British composers. What's more, there were motets to enjoy, along with anthems and hymns and carols. Determined to be inclusive, Sousa gave his opening spot to an English Catholic, William Byrd, whose "Ave verum corpus," gained a performance ever so serene and comforting.
From the earlier periods, one also heard two works by Thomas Tallis, a radiant motet praising Jesus,"O nata lux de lumine," and the first Lamentation from his "Lamentations of Jeremiah," a dramatic sample of contrapuntal writing evocative of its text, a description of Jerusalem in ruins after the Babylonian captivity. They were both sung with intuitive sense for words and message. So, too, were Orlando Gibbons' anthem, "O clap your hands" for double chorus, a joyful item with phrases in repetition, very like a round, and a lovely "Ave Maria" by another 16th century composer, Robert Parsons.
Sometimes singing a cappella and at others with organ (niftily supplied by Kay Greenshaw), sometimes singing in full force and at others in reduced configurations, the ensemble gave expressive life to traditional pieces like the Wexford and Coventry Carols and to later material, most notably a sweetly sung "I sat down under His shadow" by Edward Bairstow, the rousing "Jerusalem" of Sir Charles Parry, William Walton's celebratory "Jubilate Deo," and John Tavener's 1985 "Two Hymns to the Mother of God," influenced not only by the musical past of the Church of England but by the heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, to which this Britisher has switched allegiance.
Here was a concert that in a single hour soothed the ears and touched the heart.
December Stillness
Winter music of contemporary composters:Eric WhitacreAlf HoukomMarjorie HessSteve HeitzegKrzysztof PendereckiStephen PaulusBenjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols
Mendelssohn: Elijah
MUSIC REVIEW:
AUDIENCE SWEPT UP WITH HEAVENLY RENDITION OF ELIJAH
By Peter Jacobi
BLOOMINGTON HERALD-TIMES
MARCH 5, 2007
When the last chords of “Elijah,” Mendelssohn’s imposing oratorio, had sounded on Saturday evening at the Evangelical Community Church, a cheers-punctuated standing ovation erupted from the audience that filled the spacious venue.
It was a natural reaction to a performance by the Bloomington Chamber Singers that might have surprised even its most devoted fans. This work of epic proportions — the music, not counting intermission, spans more than two hours — is a challenge for any choir, even the most full-time and professional. These local singers are neither. They’re gifted enough to have won places in the ensemble, but their commitment comes amid other responsibilities. They’re members of a community institution, and as such, they undertake a demanding regimen of rehearsals while also handling job-and-duty schedules.
But they have an inspiring leader in Gerald Sousa, who consistently pushes his chorus and determined last year that “Elijah” was the right choice, a dramatic interpretation of Old Testament texts focused on the prophet who brings his people back to the God he loves and, as reward, is taken into heaven by a whirlwind. The music is expansive in nature, climax-laden, effusively lyrical and demanding.
Preparation began in September. By Saturday night, the singers had mastered the score, not only so that beauteous and full-bodied sounds resonated about the church, but so, also, that just as full-bodied emotions stirring in the music could be keenly felt.
In no small measure, the success of the event depended also on the soloists. These included group members portraying angels, who seemed to rejoice in their lambent harmonies, and a quartet of distinguished guests assigned to portray various Biblical characters, which they did with expected finesse.
Without doubt, Timothy Noble was the evening’s star attraction as Elijah. His baritone is a force of nature, stunningly powerful as well as resonant and radiant, a pleasure to the ears. But the bonus to a Noble performance is his ability to modulate that instrument. In moments signifying Elijah’s fury over sin and corruption, the voice raved at astounding decibel levels. In pleas for the revival of a widow’s dead son, it softened to whispers and throbs of weeping. At all times, this veteran Elijah remained totally at one with the role.
Two colleagues from IU’s music faculty, tenor Alan Bennett and mezzo Mary Ann Hart (also well attuned to their assignments and exhibiting excellence of voice), contributed significantly as they assumed other roles, these ranging from Elijah’s devoted servant Obadiah to the evil Queen Jezebel. An alumna of the Jacobs School, soprano Dawn Spaetti, returned to add her well-formed voice to the mix. As did, briefly, a charming boy soprano, Will Grindle, playing the youth asked by Elijah to look out toward the sea to determine whether the prophet’s prayers for help have been heard by God.
Conductor Sousa kept all, including an orchestra of town and gown participants, impressively coordinated and musically exalted. Good show!
Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
SINGERS PERFORM BRAHAMS WITH PASSION
By Peter Jacobi H-T ReviewerMay 5, 2008The spacious sanctuary of the Evangelical Community Church was just about filled on Saturday evening when the Bloomington Chamber Singers offered their challenging and rewarding program, capped by a performance of Brahms' radiant expression of comfort, his "A German Requiem."Earlier, there had been more Brahms, "Schicksalslied" ("Song of Destiny"), and Samuel Barber's fragrant, nostalgic "Knoxville: Summer of 1915."On the podium for the shorter, pre-intermission pieces was the gentleman usually in charge of conducting duties, the Chamber Singers' music director, Gerald Sousa, seemingly and happily in complete control after a serious bout not awfully long ago with the heart. His period of recuperation cut enough into the rehearsal schedule to shift leadership in the Requiem from Maestro Sousa to Maestro Julie Grindle, the ensemble's assistant conductor.Let it be said that the 71 choristers sang as passionately and capably for her as they did for him, meaning they sang ever so appealingly throughout the evening, meaning also one heard not only sweetly and solidly produced sound but sound flavored with implications and meanings.A boon in Bloomington is that a call for instrumentalists to people an orchestra usually brings excellent response. And that was certainly the case on this occasion. The gathered musicians - including faces recognized from various IU and local orchestras - handled their critically important collaborative responsibilities skillfully.The Requiem also required a pair of soloists, both trained at the Jacobs School: soprano Christina Pier, an alumna who won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has forged a budding career, and baritone Austin Kness, a current master's candidate we've seen take on major roles in IU Opera Theater productions. They were up to the task. Pier's brilliant top and beauty of tone fully served Brahms' evocations of human sorrow and God's eternal promise in soaring fashion. Kness' lyrical instrument cut right through orchestral and choral textures; equally noteworthy was diction of such clarity that it honored every word.Pier was the soloist for the Barber, giving emotional voice to memories of an American past at "that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street."The Chamber Singers sat silently through the Barber but were kept busy the remainder of the concert. They truly did themselves proud. First, they artfully managed the inspired melodies Brahms used to reflect a poem by Friedrich Holderlin about humankind's ever present struggle with fate. With Sousa in command of "Schicksalslied," one heard in their singing an encompassing range of emotions.The "German Requiem" sets references about death and mourning, about solace and ultimate eternal peace, taken from Martin Luther's translation of the Bible. They fed Brahms' imagination, as did the passing at the time of his beloved mother. The music he wrote is glorious. The choral demands are almost nonstop. Their realization, drawn out of the Chamber Singers by conductor Grindle, was at all times befitting.
20th Annual Messiah Sing
Our 20th annual community Messiah sing! We will sing the first section -- plus the glorious “Hallelujah” chorus -- of Handel's familiar and always rewarding sacred oratorio. We sit by sections so you can sing your part in the choruses and the arias, while the recitatives will be sung by soloists from the chorus. Bring your own score, buy an inexpensive score at the door, or borrow one of the small number we have to lend. Admission is free, but in the sharing tradition of the season, we ask that you bring donations for the local food banks, in Bedford, the Lawrence Inter-Faith Endeavor (LIFE), and in Bloomington, the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil (Vespers)
PERFORMANCE OF RACHMANINOFF MASTERPIECE SOOTHES THE SOUL
By Peter Jacobi, H-T ReviewerNovember 3, 2008
The attractive combination of the Bloomington Chamber Singers and Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil” enticed a sanctuary-filling audience to the spacious First United Church Saturday evening. The hushed quiet of the crowd throughout the hourlong concert and the enthusiastic response at its end strongly suggested that most everyone went away contented.
The “All-Night Vigil” takes only those 60 minutes. What one experiences, however, washes away specifics of time. The feeling engendered and sustained is one of expansive spirituality. An ambience of peace and quiet generates from Rachmaninoff’s score, written to inspire worshipers in the Russian Orthodox Church through music worthy of further ennobling the already noble sentiments of Vespers, a prayer service for evening, and Matins, one for morning.
Conductor Gerald Sousa drew from his 70-or-so choristers a compelling sincerity of performance, an imperative for a work uncharacteristic of those usually associated with its composer. Rachmaninoff is better known for his concertos, symphonies and piano pieces, these calling for virtuosity of technique and showmanship. Not so, the “All-Night Vigil.”
To master the Russian text and the blends of sounds is no easy task, mind you. Quite the contrary for an American, non-Russian-speaking choir, but the impression aimed for is the reverse of exhibitionism. And given a leader who understands and believes in the music, as Maestro Sousa obviously does, an ensemble of community versus professional status can be guided to become one with this stirring piece, even to make it soar. Sousa and friends did just that.
The performance was dedicated to the memory of Thomas Dunn, the notable and highly respected choral conductor and IU faculty member who passed away in late October. He would have been well pleased, one suspects.
In passages of praise and rejoicing, in those of gratitude and ever so tender, in expressions of uplift and supplication, in everything that a faith-driven Rachmaninoff poured into the Vigil, considered by many to be his masterpiece, Saturday’s host of Bloomington singers matched requirements. The musicians infused the score with depth of feeling, artlessness versus artifice, and a sense of devotion. They gave, in other words, their all, as vocalists and as purveyors of good thoughts and fervent togetherness.
Amid current world turmoil and the bitter bickering in a seemingly endless but, thank goodness, about-to-end political campaign, this “All-Night Vigil” — a potent expression of bonding in both substance and performance — proved especially welcome: restorative balm, no less.
Bach: St. Matthew Passion
CHAMBER SINGERS’ PASSION PERFORMANCE ‘A REVELATION’
By Peter Jacobi H-T ReviewerApril 7, 2009
Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion is a massive undertaking. It remains a miracle as composition, leaving us to wonder almost three centuries after it was written how it possibly could have been, considering the profundity of the score and the fact that Bach, while composing this grandeur, was continuing to produce music on a weekly basis for the Church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig and running all its choir activities.
For any performing entity, too, the presentation of the Saint Matthew Passion is a massive undertaking as well. It surely must have been for the Bloomington Chamber Singers and all the additional musicians that agreed to collaborate in the performance given Sunday afternoon at Saint John the Apostle Catholic Church.
The project began as a waking dream for Gerald Sousa, the BCS’s music director. He had conducted the work 20 years ago, driven to it then by the music’s power. It was time, he thought, to try it again, not only for himself as a matured musician but as a challenge for his chorus.
The challenge was more than well met. Sunday’s performance was a revelation, meaning that singers and instrumentalists were gratifying to hear and that Sousa’s understanding of the Passion was penetrating, loving and infectious.
It was a wonder, too, that he could move his chorus of part-timers from the community toward the lofty level of sound and interpretive acuity one heard; that he could gather and coalesce an orchestra prepared so successfully to obey his demands; and that he could find soloists — in small but amazing Bloomington — capable of meeting Bach’s steep vocal requirements.
But there they all were, in a church setting of greater width than depth, beautifully adaptable for the work’s antiphonal elements: a chorus split in two and set physically apart, an orchestral ensemble also divided in half, two organs (movable and brought in) and an additional children’s chorus (the sweet-sounding IU Children’s Choir) making a brief appearance at the rear of the sanctuary.
And there they were, singing and playing their utmost, accomplishing not only what Bach technically asked for but digging deep into the heart of this Passion, with text recounting the central narrative of the Christian faith, that leading to the Crucifixion, and with music designed to evoke reverence and renewed empathy for the story being told.
No better evangelist could have been found to musically relate that story than tenor Alan Bennett, his voice silver toned, his elocution pristine, his interpretation so forthright; nor could a more moving exponent have been chosen for the suffering Jesus than Daniel Narducci, he of a rich and resonant baritone and a sense for drama.
Baritone Curtis Crafton gave weight to the role of Pontius Pilate. As for those taxing Bach arias that comment on the biblical events being described, they were splendidly and expressively voiced by four fine soloists: soprano Angelique Zuluaga, mezzo-soprano Ursula Maria Kuhar, tenor Daniel Shirley and bass Joseph Beutel. Various members of the Chamber Singers doubled in minor yet key roles. Brent Gault and Lisa Yozviak deserve credit for preparing the IU Children’s Choir.
But it was the guiding light at the center, the man with the baton, conductor Sousa, who most deserves credit for having taken on the challenge and forging this absorbing and eloquent performance.
Mozart "Great" C minor Mass
Although less often performed than his Requiem Mass, Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, K.427 holds an astonishing combination of powerful choral settings and highly ornamental solos. It was apparently written to honor Mozart's promise to write a major mass if he was successful in marrying his beloved Constanze. It premiered in 1783, with his new bride singing the very demanding soprano arias. It is not quite complete (lacking the second half of the Credo and all of the Agnus Dei), but the Große Messe nonetheless is pure Mozart at his most passionate and emotional.
Also on the program are two works by Johann Sebastian Bach: Motet S. 225 and Cantata S. 190, both settings of the text Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (Sing to the Lord a New Song).
Soloists for the Bach S. 190 will be BCS Assistant Conductor, Julie Grindle, Alto; Daniel Shirley, Tenor; and Joseph Beutel, Bass.
For the Mozart, soloists will be Elizabeth Marshall, Soprano; Caitlin Shirley, Soprano; Daniel Shirley, Tenor; and Joseph Beutel, Bass.
Ticket price: $20 in advance, students & seniors; $22 at the door.
