Unforgettable choral singing
by MICHAEL CARUSO

Choral singing dominated my concert-going this past weekend. Valentin Radu led the Ama Deus Ensemble in an all-Haydn program that culminated in a rendition of his “‘Lord Nelson’ Mass in D minor” in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater on Friday, Nov. 6. David Hayes conducted the Philadelphia Singers on Sunday, Nov. 8, in a concert given in the newly renovated main sanctuary of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square.

Hayes led the Philadelphia Singers in the opening concert of their 37th season Sunday afternoon before an enthusiastic audience that nearly filled the opulent and resonant main sanctuary of Holy Trinity Church. Their program was entitled “Bach and Beyond.” The performances were among the finest — if not the finest, indeed — that I’ve heard from the choir since the passing of its founder, Michael Korn, more than two decades ago.

The concert opened with Stanford’s “Beati quorum vita.” Martin’s

“Mass for Double Choir” rounded out the first half with Ginastera’s “Lamentations of Jeremiah” and Bach’s Motet: “Jesu, meine Freude” filling out its second half. In all four works, Hayes elicited the most sweetly toned and eloquently phrased singing one could ever imagine from a mixed chorus. Perhaps in all the world only the Choir of Men & Boys of Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral in London could have surpassed the timbral beauty of the singing heard Sunday afternoon.

It’s been some time since the Philadelphia Singers have held the stage as the region’s undisputed choral champions. David Hayes led them in regaining that title Sunday afternoon. Welcome back!

PAPA HAYDN

The Ama Deus Ensemble’s Friday night concert was the second in its marking of the 200th anniversary of Haydn’s death. The performance of the “Lord Nelson” Mass followed renditions of the “Overture in D major,” the “Trumpet Concerto in E-flat” with soloist Elin Frazer, “‘Farewell’ Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp,” and the “Piano concerto in D major” with Valentin Radu as both conductor and soloist. Vocal soloists in the Mass included two singers well known to Chestnut Hillers. Mezzo Jody Kidwell lives in West Mt. Airy and teaches at the Germantown Branch of Settlement Music School. Kenneth Garner lives in East Falls and worked as the tenor soloist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill for nearly three decades.

Radu’s interpretive approach was broader than it was deep. Many of the score’s precise details of word setting, choral scoring and orchestration were sacrificed in the name of a liturgically questionable theatricality. There were also more than a few technical problems of ensemble and tuning in the instrumental contingent. While the chorus sang with intensity of spirit, here too there were lapses of balance and blend. On the other hand, the four vocal soloists — soprano Sarah Davis and bass Kevin Deas joining Kidwell and Garner — sang beautifully.

RUSSIAN CONTENDER

With the clock ticking and time running out for the Philadelphia Orchestra Association to name a full-fledged music director to succeed chief conductor Charles Dutoit, every viable guest conductor this season will be scrutinized under the withering gaze of a microscope. Perhaps none more so than the young Russian, Vladimir Jurowski, who mounted the Philadelphia Orchestra’s podium for three concerts over the final weekend of October. He led the ensemble in Stravinsky’s “Scherzo fantastique,” Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Armenian Sergey Khachatryan as soloist, and Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony before a fairly full Verizon Hall Saturday, Oct. 31. While Jurowski conducted the Philadelphians admirably, I, for one, was not sufficiently impressed to join the bandwagon insisting that he be hired for the post without delay.

The Stravinsky work is insignificant to the point of being meaningless on two levels: as a piece of music and as a signpost of the talent of the conductor leading it. One can only wonder why Jurowski chose to program it in the first place.

Of the three works performed, only Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony offered any inkling of what Jurowski might be like as the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. While that vision was positive, it was also both sadly fleeting and far from stellar.

Prokofiev composed many a magnificent score. Unfortunately, his Fourth Symphony isn’t one of them. Its first movement is typically dark and brooding, but it’s also atypically clumsy and lumpy in its handling of neo-classical sonata-allegro form. The music follows the rules — but grudgingly. There’s a dreamy beauty to the second movement — until it begins to drift aimlessly. Best of all is the quirky spikiness of the third movement, but even that’s undone by the noisy bombast of the closing movement.

Jurowski conducted it with precision and intensity, but to what avail? What did his work on the podium mean for the Philadelphians in the context of his becoming their next music director? Far more meaningful and therefore more promising was the previous weekend’s appearance of Daniele Gatti, who led them spectacularly in major works of the orchestral canon by Rossini, Mendelssohn and Brahms.