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Poignant and powerful spring choral concert
May 3, 2006
The Orange County Classic Choral Society and Orchestra presented its annual Spring Concert Sunday afternoon at the Blooming Grove United Church of Christ. The concert, directed by Janiece Kohler, featured Cherubini's Requiem in C Minor and Brahms' "Nanie," in keeping with the group's long tradition of offering sacred and secular music in its programs. Although seldom performed, both works offer masterful tributes to the memory of the dead. The concert itself was dedicated to a late member of the society, David Sinclair. With its 66 singers and 28 instrumentalists, the group achieves symphonic effects that, under Kohler's expert direction, are vigorously balanced and consistently resonant. The two selections with their Romantic aspirations lend themselves to tutti crescendos and dramatic contrasts that echo the operatic tradition. From its opening prayer for eternal rest to its final plea for perpetual light, Cherubini's Requiem is suffused with the liturgical spirit of the Mass. Its cry for mercy breaks out from meditative repose. Its invocation of the "Dies Irae" explodes with brass and drums to rise with trumpet calls to the "Rex tremendae," the king and judge to come. A tender request to the Lord Jesus to remember the souls of the dead is counterpointed with urgent strings, and the offertory prayer that follows swells with ardent soprano and tenor voices that shift in phrase and rhythm in its call for deliverance. In contrast, Brahms' "Nanie" turns not to Christian faith but to Greek mythology for its "Song of Lamentation" by poet Friedrich Schiller. After a simple overture of woodwinds and plucked strings, the chorus enters with a resounding declaration of the finality of death, "Even Beauty must die." Wave on wave of crescendos recall the fate of Orpheus, Adonis and Achilles so that the gods themselves weep. The one consolaton is that "even a song of lamentation in the mouth of the beloved is splendid." The work ends on a single solemn note of profound resignation, beautifully sustained by the chorus.
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