Eager chorus in tricky program
The SF Bay Area Chamber Chorus (sometimes known as the BACC) gave its spring concert last Saturday, April 12, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley. Their program, “Made in North America,” spanned the a cappella music of Mexico, the United States and Canada, organized into five groupings with lively introductions by Music Director Anthony Pasqua.
The arrangements included many short solos, chances for choir members to distinguish themselves. The variety of timbres was extensive, with honeyed voices followed by crisp, and throaty singers next to full figured vibratos and brusque harrumphs. Each was beautiful in its own way, and what was surprising was that they could join into such a fine ensemble sound, an orchestra of living wood and reed and bell.
This choir’s high level of individual skill was well matched by its adventurous programming, and indeed, that daring requires both ability and hard work.
It is rare to hear a chorus where so many singers are able to solo, and even the occasional pitch problems were overshadowed by the directness of the delivery. The crux of the group is in its fine soprano section, in which clarity and timing were the equal of any professional chorus.
They opened with a set of two psalms set by early American composer William Billings and two songs by Stephen Foster. Billings, a leather-worker by trade and self-taught composer, is credited with creating the American choral sound. “Cobham” was full and nicely balanced through the parts, done at an old English iambic gallop, and ending on big chords that “rang” against the vault of St. Marks. After a clever arrangement of Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer,” with tenor soloist Steve Kinoshita, came a solo by soprano Sarah Cane in Foster’s “Slumber, My Darling.” Cane accompanied herself on the Appalachian autoharp (a chorded zither), in a voice so pure it effortlessly filled the church. Her last stanza was done in a careful pianissimo, a drifting lullaby that left a wake of dreams.
Moving into ancient and modern Mexico, they first sang Juan de Lienas’ “Coenantibus autem illis” with lightness of spirit and cave-like resonance. It was a timeless sound, nicely complemented by Jorge Cózatl’s contemporary “Pasar la vida,” another highlight of the night. Ethereal harmonies with a succulent dissonance gave us a texture that was as tactile as Ethiopian sponge bread (that injera tef that you roll up and eat with your hands). The rhythms changed often, but the feeling was continuous, with the experimental tethered to the heart of the poetic text.
Canada was represented by three works. Contemporary Vancouver composer Stephen Chatman wrote “Mountains” as a descriptive piece with big gestures and jagged intervals. Next they sang Toronto composer Healey Willan’s “I beheld her, beautiful as a dove,” with entrances folding into and through each other, resolving in soft bass thunders. And Kristopher Fulton’s enchanting “Prometheus” finished the set with a medley of special effects. Sharp entrances and pop rhythms were reminiscent of Mark Alburger’s tropes, along with rhythms layered into the lub-dub of a heart, and fun slides.
Back in the USA, excerpts from William Schuman’s Perceptions stretched our expectations. In “Thought” the chorus sculpted their sound with huge swells and sudden diminuendos, and in “To You” soprano soloist Elise Mills explored intervals over a gorgeous cloud of hums.
Then alto Claudia Brunsvold sang Morton Feldman’s monochromatic “Only” with a cool and measured beauty. Pasqua spoke of Feldman’s circle of New York artists, and of his abstract expressionist approach.
“With only eight pitches and five gestures he captures Rilke’s antithetical text, of humans both earthborn and soaring in spirit. Unlike the Minimalists, who use repetition to propel the music forward, Feldman uses repetition to create a sense of stasis.”
Another soloist, Kelly Matthysen, was the soprano in Stacy Garrop’s “On Hearing a Symphony of Beethoven.” Her voice, with its internal luminosity and tight vibrato, circled over a restrained choral buzz.
A Paiute lullaby, a traditional spiritual, a Mexican corrido, and a French Quebec folk song satisfied our American wanderlust, and then they closed with the traditional “How can I Keep from Singing?” led by another lovely soloist, soprano Barbara Wilson.
—Adam Broner
Photo: Members of the SFBACC
