April 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

‘Crossing’ into fine music at Hill church Friday
by MICHAEL CARUSO

Donald Nally, former music director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, the Choral Arts Society and the chorus of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, will conduct the concert by The Crossing at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., on Friday, April 25, 8 p.m.

The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., will open its 12th annual Festival of Music and Art on Friday, April 25, with a wine and cheese reception starting at 6:30 p.m. followed by a choral concert featuring The Crossing at 8 p.m., which in turn will be followed by a second reception.

Mark Anderson, organist and choir director of the church as well as the music director of the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, explained that the annual festival was one of the first fruits of his tenure and that of senior pastor Cynthia Jarvis.

“It was part of our collaborative efforts to revitalize the congregation by getting people involved in activities that reached out to the entire Chestnut Hill community,” he said. “Over the dozen years we’ve hosted the festival, we’ve focused on various themes, with art being an equal component with music. This year we’re featuring the work of five young art majors from Arcadia University.”

The Crossing’s concert will follow the opening reception and will be conducted by its founder, Donald Nally, currently the chorus director for the Chicago Lyric Opera but formerly the music director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, the Choral Arts Society and the chorus of the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

CHORISTERS CONCERT: On Saturday, April 26, 8 p.m., The Choristers will present John Rutter’s Mass of the Children. Accompanying the choir will be soloists Maureen Francis, soprano (seen here), and Frank Mitchell, bass, and a 28-piece professional orchestra. Additional works to be performed are Randall Thompson’s Frostiana and the world premiere of David Hobbs’ The King of Peace — a work commissioned by The Choristers. The concert will be held at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church, located at the corner of Susquehanna Road and Butler Pike outside of Ambler. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for college/high school students and free for children. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or e-mail Info@TheChoristers.org.

The program consists of Arvo Part’s “Triodon;” Thea Musgrave’s “Momento Creatoris” with excerpts from a 17th century sermon by John Donne; Kenneth Leighton’s “Crucifixus pro nobis” featuring Scott Dettra at the church’s splendid Mander pipe organ; and a prominent tenor solo sung by Steven Bradshaw, Lars-Johan Werle’s “Conzone 126 di Petrarca;” Philip Moore’s “Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoffer,” and Tarich O’Regan’s “Care Carminge Sleepe.”

Explaining the choir’s first-time involvement in the festival, Nally said, “Mark asked us about a year ago following our first concert at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church. Both Cindy (Jarvis) and Mark said that they wanted our choir to consider their church as our home, and the congregation has treated us like family, sort of like they’ve adopted us. After we sang here the first time, we realized it was the perfect venue for the kind of music we love to perform, and our audiences have grown with every subsequent concert, so I think the public agrees.”

For more information, call 215-247-8855.

DISAPPOINTMENT

A most eagerly anticipated trio of concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra was that trio scheduled for the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall April 10, 11 and 12. The reason was the appearance of guest conductor Vladimir Jurowski. He is the young Russian-born maestro many members of the Orchestra, its board of trustees, its administrative staff and its audiences are hoping can and will be engaged as music director following the four years of Charles Dutoit’s tenure as chief conductor and artistic adviser.

His program of Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Atmospheres,” Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and Johann Strauss Jr.’s “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” Waltz was the kind of clever amalgam of two repertoire staples, a mildly provocative new work and a sentimental touch of nostalgia that would likely serve him well as the Philadelphians’ permanent maestro.

Although the admirable program remained intact over the weekend, Jurowski’s appearance did not. Due to illness, he was forced to withdraw. He was replaced by the Brazilian-born Roberto Minczuk, who seemed to enjoy hearing the Philadelphians perform from the highly desirable vantage-point of their podium but who never once seemed to actually direct any of their music-making.

This was particularly obvious during the rendition of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist. Znaider rarely took his eyes off concertmaster David Kim who, when he wasn’t looking at Znaider, combined playing his own part with holding the ensemble together by giving subtle cues to his colleagues.

Not altogether amazingly — considering the combined talents of Znaider, Kim and the Philadelphians — the performance came off not merely without a hitch but at an incredibly high level of artistry.

Despite its immense size and sprawling form, “Also Sprach Zarathustra” held together impressively well when you consider that Minczuk never seemed in control of anything anyone did during its rendition. Still, the rendition lacked any sense of interpretive distinction. And “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” was performed without a hint of Viennese sentimentality, doubling the insult since both scores by the two different Strausses were hallmarks of the late Eugene Ormandy, the Orchestra’s music director for 44 years and a maestro who knew how to deliver the sonic narration of a tone poem and recall the gilded age of the late 19th century better than anyone.

‘COPPELIA’

The Pennsylvania Ballet opened its production of Coppelia this past weekend in the Merriam Theater. Set to music by Leo Delibes with choreograhy “after” Marius Petipa, this well-worn romantic comedy continues through April 27.

Although there are lovers of ballet who dearly love “Coppelia” and eagerly await its every revival, I must confess I am not one of them. And, from the many empty seats at the medium-sized Merriam opening night on Friday, I suspect that Coppelia may have worn out its welcome among contemporary balletomanes, which in turn might mean that Erdenheim’s Roy Kaiser, the company’s artistic director, should think long and hard before reviving it once again in the near future.

For one thing, the choreography is very dated. It relies too heavily on mime — virtually identical in concept and gesture from the silent film acting of the 1920s — to narrate a story just barely worth telling. The notion of dear old Dr. Coppelius creating a mechanical doll so lifelike that it fools Franz into abandoning the lovely and lively Swanilda and instead pledging his love to Coppelia renders the conceits behind Tchaikovsky’s great ballets as nothing short of stark realism. Short of new choreography that eliminates as much of the mime as possible in place of virtuosic dancing, Coppelia may just be one of those old chestnuts that has finally gone rotten.