On Feb. 24, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill held an afternoon Choral Evensong that served as an introduction to its new music director, Andrew Kotylo. (Photo courtesy of Cliff Cutler)

by Michael Caruso

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, hosted a Choral Evensong Feb. 24 that served as an afternoon introduction to its new music director, Andrew Kotylo. In choral music by Searle Wright, Philip Radcliffe, Herbert Howells, George Dyson and Larry King, plus organ works by David Conte and Theodore Dubois, Kotylo gave the 100-plus congregation in attendance reason to believe that St. Paul’s Church has found a worthy successor to the brilliant Zachary Hemenway, now working at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Seattle, WA.

The service’s principal works were George Dyson’s settings of the traditional texts from the Gospel of St. Luke in the New Testament of the Bible, the “Magnificat” and the “Nunc Dimittis.” Arranged for full choir accompanied by organ, both present their scriptural excerpts with dramatic extravagance and emotional flamboyance.

In the “Magnificat,” Dyson presents a tonal picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary boldly rejoicing that she will bear the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus Christ. Whereas in reply to the Archangel Gabriel’s “Annunciation,” Mary gently responds, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word,” here before her cousin St. Elizabeth, she proclaims, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

Dyson’s music matches her bold words of faith with broad gestures, leaping melodic lines, exuberant rhythms and daring harmonies. Despite being on the job less than a month, Kotylo elicited powerful and moving singing from St. Paul’s Church Choir. Dynamics spanned the broadest spectrum from loud to soft without loss of either tonal focus or clarity of texture, and diction was crisp without becoming affected.

In the “Nunc Dimittis,” in which St. Simeon expresses profound gratitude to God for having permitted him to see the newborn Messiah before passing from this world to the next, Dyson chose subdued shades, gentle phrasings, delicate pastels of harmonies and smooth rhythms to set his text. Kotylo and the Choir matched the composer’s reassuring intentions with singing of immaculate tuning and soothing timbres.

In a mark of the value the Anglican Communion (of which the American Episcopal Church is a part) places on sustaining the traditions that bind us together, outgoing interim choir director Steven Gearhart directed the Choir from the front of the church for the opening Introit, “Now the day is over” by Searle Wright. He was also the admirable cantor throughout the service. Associate Rector Father Joseph Wolyniak delivered the afternoon’s pointed sermon.

CHAMBER MUSIC

Earlier in the afternoon, I had a chance to hear the Fairmount String Quartet perform Mozart’s String Quartet in E-flat, K. 428, and Amy Beach’s Quartet for Strings in One Movement in the first half of their recital. Then, joined by pianist Ken Lovett after intermission, the ensemble played Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Opus 34.

The concert took place in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, where the Fairmount musicians are artists-in-residence and Lovett is the church’s organist. The setting was the congregation’s main sanctuary, which can seat approximately 300 people. It’s a perfect acoustical venue for choirs like the Crossing and period instrument ensembles such as Piffaro and Tempesta di Mare who regularly draw audiences that can nearly fill the pews. The sound is clear and resonant.

Sadly, no more than a quarter of capacity was on hand Sunday afternoon. Not only was that distressing in an overall way, but it was troubling acoustically, as well. Resonance slipped into reverberation that occasionally ventured into echo, all the while muddying the playing dangerously close to inarticulate.

Although ensemble held remarkably well in the Mozart, there was precious little dynamic gradation and even less clarity of line. The Beach is an admirable work by one of America’s most important female composers, but it’s not without moments of generic solid craftsmanship devoid of much inspiration. As such, it needs a stupendous rendition to pull it off efficaciously. Sadly, the murky acoustics of the not-well-filled venue undermined the fine playing of violinists Rachel Segal & Leah Kim, violist Beth Dzwil and cellist Mimi Morris-Kim.

The Brahms is an unalloyed work of genius, and the addition of pianist Ken Lovett to the string players’ efforts was mightily beneficial. All five musicians caught the developmental splendor of the first movement, the lyricism of the second, the scintillating panache of the third and the deep well of profound emotions of the fourth. Yet even here, there were moments of ensemble instability that made me wonder if the musicians could hear themselves playing as well as they should be able to do in order to give their best interpretations.

The solo performance of Ricardo Morales, principal clarinetist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, was one of the highlights of the Orchestra's concerts from Feb. 21-23. (Photo courtesy of Alexa Vecchione)

ORCHESTRA DEBUT

Due to the indisposition of Andres Orozco-Estrada, Joshua Weilerstein made his debut as a guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra in concerts performed Feb. 21-23 in the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall. Currently the music director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Weilerstein kept the majority of Orozco-Estrada’s program: Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Opus 74, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F major, Opus 90. Sadly, Janacek’s “Tarus Bulba” Suite was jettisoned in favor of Caroline Shaw’s forgettable “Entr’acte for String Orchestra.”

Despite Weilerstein’s fine interpretation of Brahms’ Third Symphony, the high point of the concert was the overall performance of the Weber and the rendition of its solo part by the Orchestra’s principal clarinetist, Ricardo Morales. It’s a seminal score, and Morales gave it a stunning performance.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) played a seismic role in the history of German classical music in the early decades of the 19th century. Although his music sits securely within the Austro-Germanic classical traditions established by Haydn and Mozart and expanded upon by Beethoven and Schubert, Weber’s music is proto-romantic in that it begins to use the “sound” of the orchestra to elicit emotions in a way that would become the norm throughout the rest of the 19th century and well into the first decades of the 20th.

Weber was also one of the earliest composers to champion the clarinet. Although Mozart wrote the first clarinet concerto of stature and the first clarinet quintet of importance, and certainly both Beethoven and Schubert included it in their symphonic writing for the woodwind choir, it was Weber who gave it the prominent place it still occupies to this day. And his clarinet concerti remain staples of the repertoire.

Morales’ playing displayed a consummate technique, an unerring command of the broadest possible range of dynamics, lyrical eloquence of phrasing and dazzling pyrotechnics of tone and timbre. Then when he was joined by principal contrabassist Harold Robinson to play two encores by Morton Gould, Morales seamlessly slid into the use of the vibrato typical of jazz clarinetists and atypical of classical players of the instrument.

BALLET’S ‘GISELLE’

The Pennsylvania Ballet will present the world premiere of artistic director Angel Corella’s restaging of “Giselle” in the Academy of Music on March 7 to 17. For more information, visit paballet.org

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net. To read more of NOTEWORTHY, visit chestnuthilllocal.com/Arts/Noteworthy