VOLTI CHORUS--TIGHTROPE WALKERS WITHOUT A NET
By D. Rane Danubian
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of May 18-25, 2009
Vol. 11, No. 100
I’m not sure I like the current name Volti of the
S.F.
Chamber Singers, but given the large number of choruses around San Francisco
with near-identical names, the
name change has some merit.
Founded 30
years ago by Music Director Robert Geary, Volti
is adventurous, akin to an acrobat walking a tightrope without a safety
net.
Not only does it make do without accompaniment---thereby making tuning
a
devilishly difficult exercise---but also all of its repertoire is
modern. In
fact, the infinitely energetic local composer Kirke Mechem, 83, came in
for
some kidding because his “Three Madrigals” are from far back, in the
early
1950s.
Furthermore,
there is a multiplicity of languages to contend
with; the concert of May 16 at St. Gregory of Nyssa Church
for instance took the group into Tuva, Latin, and something called
“English”
you might have heard of.
So call Volti
a unique resource in the Bay Area. And given
just 20 singers, there is no place to hide. Almost every one is a
soloist. And
the group manages this quite well, despite some uncertainty in the
early going.
The strongest
work this night was Aaron Jay Kernis’”Ecstatic
Meditations” (1999) which blended the very new with the very old. Texts
were
translations of 13th-century mystical writings of the
“other” nun-composer of
early Germany,
Mechthild of Magdeburg (Hildegard had preceded her by some years).
These ardent
texts of love for God---astonishingly modern in viewpoint---draws us
into the
music with the visionary texts, the polytonal chords, the whirlpools of
repetition. Some of the four segments are dancelike, others duets
recalling the
quasi-medieval modal compositions of Ralph Vaughan Williams. But
altogether,
they formed 18 minutes of intense, focal music.
Two world
premieres were presented, both commissioned by
Volti. I liked the gusto of Robert Patterson’s tripartite “On the Day
the World
Ends,” marked by the high drama in the poem of that name by Milosz. The
dynamic
contrasts, the high-low zigzags, all fed into the refined harmonies of
the
piece. Hardly less dramatic was the “Life Is a Tragedy” section, with
its
refrains and repetitions. The morbid finale
adds elements of bird-songs to the mix in a stylish achievement.
Donald
Crockett’s brief new “Daglarym” was partly in Tuva
language. The recurrent Tuva folk melody was problematical, as its
unorthodox
tuning implied that the singers were going off pitch. That ostinato
however
unified the piece, and the chromaticism provided exceptional challenges
to the
20-member ensemble.
A polyphonic
prayer in Latin, festooned by high sopranos,
marked Sungji Hong’s “Emendemus in melius” (2004). A more traditional
treatment, with rhyming poetic lines, was Mechem’s “Three Madrigals,”
an
infectious set with abrupt turns and, eventually, a tormented finale,
all using
poetry of Mechem’s father.
Crocket,
Patterson and Mechem all attended the concert and
took bows.
“Ecstatically Impromptu,” a
concert of modern a cappella in
three venues by the local choral group Volti. May 16, St. Gregory of Nyssa
Church,
S.F. For info: (415) 771-3352, or go online.
©D. Rane Danubian 2009
#
D. Rane Danubian 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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