AWE BEFORE THE 'MISSA SOLEMNIS'
                    Dramatic Surges in Grand Choral Treatment 
<>                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of June 25-July 2, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 111
            Completing his “Missa Solemnis” just three years before his death, Beethoven called it his greatest work, greater even than his opera “Fidelio.” It’s a mammoth-scale hybrid, somewhere between concert hall and church, somewhere between the new musical dynamism and retrieved archaic forms. And he believed fervently in its impact, even authorizing a German translation of the Latin for broader circulation around Europe.
            The San Francisco Symphony and Chorus closed out their regular season with this 75-minute work, played without intermission, a colossus consistent with the other giants in the past month, namely three überdimensional Mahler symphonies. On top of that, Michael Tilson Thomas and his musicians undertook a European tour, and also unveiled the latest (and, frankly, outstanding) TV program of “Keeping Score,” focused on Mahler.
            It made for a feast of riches, requiring more than just a modicum of perspiration to assemble. And had the foursome of vocal soloists integrated their sound in ensemble with greater effort, the opener June 23  before a sold-out house would have ascended to an unqualified success all around.
            This grand but earnest opus is not an instant crowd-pleaser, but it shows so much variety in Beethoven unique in his oeuvre as to fascinate any devotee. Consider the contrasts: Snatches of ancient modes (Dorian, Mixolydian, Gregorian chant), and the sweet tenorial  “Incarnatus” section recalling Palestrina from centuries before; several fugues, among the most elaborate he ever did, as if trying to top Handel; the tranquility of the “Sanctus” section, juxtaposed with the unprecedented storminess of “For You Alone Are Holy,” a true choral tour de force where you reach for your seat belt in a Richter-5.0 musical earthquake. The extreme loud-soft contrasts of the chorus’ Credo suggest to me that Verdi must have heard it to go on his own quests years later: If pp-vs.-ff is good, why not progress to fff-vs.-pppp in extremes of dynamics?
            In addition, the work hovers between secular and religious traditions---the restrained reverence of church music vs. the crescendos and extravagant choral  displays closer to opera. 
            This is a fervent, passionate, dramatic choral treatment of the mass, with the solo voices subordinate, devoid of arias. Surprisingly, Beethoven suppresses his harmonic inventiveness, content to focus largely on the diatonic scale, like some nice, rotund D major.
            But what a huge challenge for the chorus----here numbering some 115. The work revolves around them, but not comfortably. Beethoven’s notorious penchant for elevating to the voices’ highest register is nowhere greater than here, where sopranos for instance are straining up to the heavens above the staff on page after page, with scant relief.
            Fortunately, this was one of the S.F. Symphony Chorus’ sterling moments, fitting in as though this was written for them, and not for the Viennese, nor for the St. Petersburg forces that gave the 1824 world premiere.
            Michael Tilson Thomas led the ever reliable SFS, tossing away his familiar baton, shaping the music instead with pliable hands in the air. If this struck you as a Leonard Bernstein mode of conducting, it’s just the latest manifestation of MTT shaping his highly successful conducting career in the Bernstein mold. Now if MTT would just compose a few symphonies, a Kaddish, and a “West Side Story” or two,…..
 <>            The vocalists included Christine Brewer, the eminent British Wagnerienne who tempered her volcanic voice to blend with the foursome---the only discernible sign of any one of them blending with any one else.
            These San Francisco Symphony + Chorus concerts continue through June 26 at 2 p.m. For info: (415) 864-6000, or go  online. Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (102.1) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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