Peerless Choral Evensong performance at St. Paul's

Posted 11/3/16

St. Paul's Episcopal Church. by Michael Caruso St. Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill, celebrated Choral Evensong Sunday, Oct. 30. It was, perhaps, the most finely assembled and finely sung and played …

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Peerless Choral Evensong performance at St. Paul's

Posted
St. Paul's Episcopal Church. St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

by Michael Caruso

St. Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill, celebrated Choral Evensong Sunday, Oct. 30. It was, perhaps, the most finely assembled and finely sung and played performance of the traditional Anglican liturgy for the end of the day I’ve experienced in recent memory. From start to finish, the standard of music chosen by parish music director Zachary Fritsch-Hemenway and the renditions that music received would have any cathedral musical establishment in the world green with envy.

The start of Evensong proper was preceded by organ scholar Joseph Russell’s splendid reading of John Weaver’s “Fantasia for Organ.” Famed organ department head of both Philadelphia’s own Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, Weaver was also a highly admired composer for his beloved instrument.

His “Fantasia for Organ” is a marvelously constructed three-part work of angular melodies, clashing dissonances, thrusting rhythms and disparate textures during its fast first and third sections and surprisingly delicate lyricism in the middle. Russell, a Curtis Institute student of Weaver’s successor, Alan Morrison, gave the work a scintillating interpretation that made the most of the church’s Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ’s multitude of registrations. He projected the shining brilliance of the first and third sections of the score as well as the flute-like transparency of the middle portion. Most memorable was the finale, which set the entire church bursting at the seams with reverberating electricity.

Roman Catholic composer Leo Nester’s “Dulcis Jesu memoria” (Jesus the very thought of thee), sung in Latin, is a major work of impressive scale and scope. In many a church service, it would be the principal choral work of the day. Here it functioned at the Introit – the opening choral piece for Evensong, sung at the back of the church.

Its evocations of medieval plainsong surrounded by clouds of chords were performed under Fritsch-Hemenway’s direction with a rigorous precision of pitch and blend that smoothly yet unstoppably led to a glorious conclusion at the “Amen.” Its programming was a musical affirmation of the strong connections between Canterbury, the historic see of the Anglican Communion, and the Eternal City of Rome, the ancient see of the Universal Church.

So high was the musical standard of this Evensong that even the singing of Psalm 103, “Praise the Lord, O my soul,” was a major choral event. Set to Anglican chant by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, the score admittedly has one of the most inspired of the Psalms of David as its text. But in a way, that increases the pressure on the composer to match the poetry of the words with music of equal power and beauty. Stanford did — and Fritsch-Hemenway and his choristers rose to their challenge and delivered a performance that was both sweeping and intimate.

Grayston Ives’ “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis” were the service’s official “major works.” Born in 1948, Ives’ musical setting of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s “My soul doth magnify the Lord” is darkly explosive, replete with closely knit dissonances, while his setting of Simeon’s hymn, “Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace,” speaks in the soothing tones of a lullaby. Most impressive was the organ’s full participation in the score’s thematic development; no mere accompanying, here. Once again, St. Paul’s choristers sang with telling passion closely aligned with the texts.

The afternoon’s final choral offering was Kenneth Leighton’s “Let all the world in every corner sing,” a dazzling display of 20th century harmony and rhythm called into service for delineating a festive text. No matter how full-throated a level Fritsch-Hemenway demanded of his choristers, they never responded with anything approaching a shrill tone. Instead, the singing was powerfully projected yet expertly articulated and modulated.

St. Paul’s Church will mark All Soul’s Day with a performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem Mass in D minor Sunday, Nov. 6, at 5 p.m.

‘VIVALDISSIMO’

Chestnut Hill’s Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields will be a hotbed of musical activity this coming weekend. The Camerata Ama Deus Baroque Chamber Orchestra will open its season Friday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. Then, on Sunday, Nov. 6, 5 p.m. the parish will celebrate Choral Evensong under the direction of its music director, Erik Meyer.

The Camerata Ama Deus’ program is entitled “Vivaldissimo” and will feature music written by the baroque master Antonio Vivaldi. Based for much of his career in the Most Serene Republic of Venice, Vivaldi remains one of the most popular of all classical composers, rivaling in number of performances throughout the season the scores of both contemporaries Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.

Explained Ama Deus founder and director Valentin Radu, “To launch our Chestnut Hill appearances this year, the Camerata Ama Deus Baroque Chamber Orchestra will perform a very lively all-Vivaldi program in the lovely ambience and tremendous acoustics of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

“Among the most popular Vivaldi orchestral works which we will perform,” the Romanian-born Radu continued, “our audience can enjoy both the ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ concerti from ‘The Four Seasons’ with solos played by Thomas DiSarlo.”

Local audiences had the chance to hear “Autumn” performed by Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, with Emlyn Ngai as soloist Sunday, Oct. 23, in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Friday evening’s performance will offer the perfect opportunity for a comparison of two locally based ensembles’ renditions.

Other works on the program include concerti for the viola d’amore (the “viola of love” whose six or seven sounding strings are often supported by non-bowed sympathetic strings) and oboe. Soloists in these scores will be Paul Miller and Sarah Davol, respectively.

Tickets are priced at $10 for students, $20 for seniors and $25 for general admission. They can be purchased in advance at www.voxamadeus.org or 610-688-2800.

CHORAL EVENSONG

St. Martin’s music director, Erik Meyer, explained that the musical program for Sunday afternoon’s Choral Evensong consists of the organ prelude “Stele pour un enfant defunct” by Louise Vierne, the “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis” by Richard Farrant, Responses by Philip Radcliffe, and the Offertory anthem, “Bring Us O Lord God,” by William Harris.

“There will be no postlude,” Meyer said, “as the last part of the service will take place in the Columbarium (the niche on the north side of the Church where the funeral urns have been placed). Though the Evensong isn’t taking place on All Souls Day (Nov. 2), we generally observe All Saints (Nov. 1) at the morning service and All Souls at Evensong on the first Sunday of November.”

Meyer added that both the Farrant and Radcliffe scores are likely to be performed when the parish’s choir travels to England next summer. “The Harris is for double choir. It’s a wonderful piece, but its success will depend on how may singers we have.”

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