As Smooth as Glass LOS ANGELES, CA-Opening night of the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 43rd season starts “in the beginning”, by presenting a Creation motif in two very different settings. With Music Director Grant Gershon in his sixth year at the helm, the Chorale collaborated with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to offer Franz Joseph Haydn’s Creation Mass and Itaipu by minimalist composer, Phillip Glass. The Creation Mass is one of six masses composed in Haydn’s twilight years. Haydn quotes a portion of his own Creation Oratorio in the Gloria of the Mass, which gives the work its nickname. The rather grim text, “who taketh away the sins of the world,” is set to a jovial melody from Adam’s duet in the Oratorio. Haydn’s
patroness, Empress Maria Therese, was not amused at his
attempted humor and required a rewrite.
Luckily, on October 22, 2006, the LA Master Chorale
performed the “director’s cut” version of the work to a
full audience at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The
Kyrie opened serenely
with a mezzo-soprano solo, and Kelly O’Connor did not
disappoint. She
sang with richness and warmth for the duration of the work,
which clearly showcased her resonant voice and sensitivity to
the musical line. The
solo quartet was completed by Soprano Elissa Johnston, Tenor
Jonathan Mack and Bass Steven Pence.
The Chorale sang with lightness and impressive dexterity
in the Gloria. The melismatic
passages were executed with energy and momentum, and the
“amens” toward the end were released with a beautiful
delicacy. Organist
Patricia Mabee rendered the organ-tenor interchange in the Credo
with a playful, expressive touch.
The soloists and chorale created an Agnus
Dei that was both ethereal and majestic. The
second offering of the evening, Itaipu,
is one of three “nature portraits” created by composer
Phillip Glass. The
work takes its name from the world’s largest hydroelectric
plant located on the Parana River, which forms the border
between Brazil and Paraguay.
The text for Itaipu, or “singing stones” in Guarani, comes from the creation
myth of the Guarani Indians, who were edged out by the creation
of the plant. The
programmatic nature of the work sweeps the listener along the
path of the Parana river from the Brazilian highlands in the
first movement, to the placid Lake and then cascading over the
Dam and out to sea. The LA Master Chorale and Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra clearly demonstrated that there is no
substitute for a live experience of this primordial work. The
basses and percussion opened the Mato
Grosso with a passacaglia that ominously foreshadowed the
monumental journey that awaited the listener.
The chorale entered with a wash of sound that was both
celestial and primitive, ebbing and flowing between moments of
tranquillity and startling intensity.
The fluid, hypnotic passages of the violins carried the
listener to the temporary calmness of The
Lake. And then,
again, an exhilarating momentum was built by the pulsing,
percussive voices and the swirling and churning strings, which
lifted the listener to the crest of The Dam and sent him in a frenzied tumble over it.
The audience was noticeably affected and appreciative and responded with a standing ovation. Such a triumphant opening night as this could only create anticipation for what is surely to be a thrilling season. - Andrea Herron
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