Bell, Grant Park Chorus bring wide-ranging program to west side

Bell, Grant Park Chorus
bring wide-ranging
program to west side
By Tim Christiansen
Christopher Bell led the Grant Park Chorus
Thursday night in a concert at the
Columbus Park Refectory.
The Columbus Park Refectory on Chicago’s
far west side proved to be a unique but
fitting performance space for the Grant
Park Chorus, led by Christopher Bell, in
an a cappella concert, “Songs of Praise
and Passion.” People crowded the concert
space, deck and patio to enjoy an evening
of diverse and powerful choral music.
Contemporary a cappella choral music,
which made up most of the program,
occupies a unique niche of classical
music. The repertoire is comprised
primarily of less well-known composers,
and Thursday evening’s lineup
exemplified and exulted in that fact.
The choir introduced themselves with Sir
Charles Hubert Parry’s My Soul, There is a
Country. The energetic piece showed off
the choir’s great command of dynamics,
precise cut-offs, and their passion.
The next three compositions were
composed by one of Lithuania’s leading
choral composers, Vytautas Miskinis. His
unique harmonic language of large,
expressive chords highlighted the many
colors of the Grant Park Chorus and their
command of balance. The most powerful
of the three, a setting of O Sacrum
Convivium, epitomized the profound
power of the collective human voice. The
Grant Park Chorus sang the piece with
conviction and near-perfect intonation,
highlighting the consonances and
dissonances within each multilayered
chord.
The first piece, Dum medium silentium,
featured complex, fragmented rhythmic
figures juxtaposed to large, shape-shifting
color-chords. Pater Noster was the
composer’s imaginative setting of the
Lord’s Prayer that was at times a
profound meditation and at others a grant
proclamation, ending in a haunting,
whispered Amen.
Bell, director of the Grant Park Chorus,
expressed his deep love for the inspired
text setting of the next piece, Alleluia,
Christus Resurrexit by English composer,
Colin Mawby. The chorus never lost
intonation through the rapidly swooping
dissonances and dynamic contrasts.
The following pieces were selections from
Rachmaninoff’s choral masterpiece, the
All-Night Vigil. The chosen selections
were, Come, Let Us Worship, Rejoice, O
Virgin Theotokos, and Glory to God in the
Highest. Rachmaninoff requires a massive
Russian sound and the Grant Park Chorus
provided it. Bell led the choir with a
liberal approach to the dynamics while
never losing them or the music. Energetic
voice leading, bass-up balance, and
grandiose climaxes made for a moving
performance.
In contrast to Rachmaninoff’s serious,
meditative pieces, the following two
compositions were love songs by leading
Estonian choral composer, Veljo Tormis.
He set the poetry of fellow Estonian, Ernst
Enno.
Both love songs were considerably
contrasted. The first, Early Summer’s
Fairy Tale , is light-hearted and innocent
in nature and was dedicated to Enno’s
former girlfriend. The Grant Park Chorus
performed it with sensitivity and humor.
The second, Soundlessly Somewhere
Murmurings Homeward, was a much more
seasoned look at love, dedicated to Enno’s
wife of many years. A conversation was
created by having the women chorus
members in one key and the men in
another with a constant sense of
murmuring. The difficult work was
executed very well.
The following three pieces were by
Chicago composer, Stacy Garrop. She
adapted the texts for Sonnets of Desire,
Longing and Whimsy from American poet,
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The first, “Now By This Moon, Before This
Moon Shall Wane,” examined love from
the aspect of unreasonable desire. Garrop
held nothing back in this crazed setting
making use of sharp verbal consonances
and exhales. The second, “Time Does Not
Bring Relief,” was a haunting and twisted
composition representing inconsolable
longing. The third, “I Shall Forget You
Presently, My Dear,” described a shallow,
whimsical romance. The Grant Park
Chorus performed these pieces with great
confidence and close attention to the text.
The program concluded with a simple and
moving piece by Steven Sametz, I Have
Had Singing. The text rejoiced in a life
made joyful through singing, and proved a
fitting end to a wide-ranging and
enjoyable evening.

http://chicagoclassicalreview.com/2013/08/bell-grant-park-chorus-bring-wide-ranging-choral-program-to-west-side/