The Capital Area Chorale


Concert Review

Music Review: Singing a different tune
May 22, 2000
By Alwin Tonkonogy,
Correspondent for News and Observer, Raleigh

Most choral performances are built around a familiar central work. The Capital Area Chorale, performing Friday at Edenton Street United Methodist Church, took a different approach with a program of shorter works that would be appropriate in a standard church service. If the evening inherently lacked the depth of a more epic centerpiece, there's room for such an event -- especially one that includes music outside the mainstream -- in the region's offerings. The chorale is a small group -- 22 women and 12 men, conducted by William Weisser -- but it gained a mass with the addition of 27 members of the Raleigh Boychoir. The program was titled "Music Fit for a Queen," works associated with England's cathedrals and royal court events. To open the concert, all singers joined in a stirring performance of Sir Hubert Parry's anthem "I Was Glad." The Boychoir, led by Thomas Sibley, then sang four standard works in Latin: Bach's "Donime Deus" with a well-played violin obligato, Josef Rhineberger's "Kyrie et Gloria" and "Ave Maria," and Herbert Sumsion's "Magnificat in G." The boys did well, even if their combined voices sounded small in the large church. The massed voices then performed "The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune" by the English master Ralph Vaughan Williams. The singing was solid, though the music was less than inspired. The program continued with two anthems performed by the chorale: William Harris' "Behold, the Tabernacle of God" and a better known Coronation Anthem, Handel's "Zadok the Priest." The music of the latter piece was hardly up to the caliber we expect from the composer, but the singing was better than the music. The chorale was then joined by boy soprano Ben Sparrow as soloist in an another anthem by Vaughan Williams, "O Taste and See." The combined forces sang "Song for Athene," an interesting anthem by John Tavener, followed by Tavener's "The Lamb." The program closed with the major work of the evening, "Judge Eternal" by the organist of St. Thomas Church in New York, Gerre Hancock, in which the massed voices filled the large space with a well-focused tone in an unusual piece with modern overtones. The chorale's organist, Sue Crocker, was ill, and Boychoir organist Kevin Kerstetter played not only for his group but for the Capital Area Chorale as well. To learn and play all this music on a one-day notice was quite a feat. The performance served those those who like standard church music in an interesting program well sung and authentically performed. The conductors had their forces under firm control and provided one that was well performed and strongly led.

 

 

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