“Contrasts are what move our souls and such is the aim of all good music,” Claudio Monteverdi wrote in 1638. Nowhere are contrasts more extreme, and more moving, than in his Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610, a veritable compendium of old and new styles of composition. Contrasts, of course, may be implicit in a musical score, but depend on performers to bring them out. And luckily, singers are far more expressive these days. In our own lifetimes we’ve witnessed a shift from flat, stodgy, “churchy” versions of these Vespers to the kind of exuberant, detailed interpretation that Baroque Choral Guild delivered last weekend, infused with all the contrasting moods that Monteverdi cared about so deeply.

The Choral Guild, which celebrates its twentieth season next year, draws its singers from the community and performs both standard and unusual new and early repertoire. Mitchell Covington directs the group with particular attention to a multitude of sounds, from a hushed whisper to edgy, biting outbursts. Joining the chorus for this show were seven fine soloists, Cantabile Children’s Chorus, and wind band the Whole Noyse, and musicians from the early music ensemble Magnificat.

These musicians added immensely to the concert, especially lutenist David Tayler and organist Susan Harvey, whose accompaniments are always sensitive and inventive. But the performance also revealed a common phenomenon: as expert as the “professional” musicians are, many of them gave the impression that this was just another gig, ignoring Covington’s cues and playing without much conviction. The “amateur” chorus, on the other hand, sang with an enthusiastic presence behind every note, showed a thorough knowledge of the score, kept its eyes on Covington, and conveyed an exciting range of color and contrast that would have made the composer proud.

Covington brought out all the subtleties of Monteverdi’s fusions of words and text. At the end of the echo aria “Audi coelum,” the full chorus joined the solo tenor on “omnes” (“all”), and Covington pulled them back on the world “dulce” (“sweet”), then created a warm, full blend in “Benedicta es” (“Blessed art thou”). The chorus also made individual lines of counterpoint just as clear as if they had been sung by solo voices. Details like these bring the work to life, reminding us why Stravinsky lamented the demise of great sacred choral music in the 20th century.

The Cantabile Children’s Chorus sang its protracted cantus firmus lines like a brilliant beacon amidst the intricate instrumental backdrop. When the chorus’ tenors and basses sang the line “Quia respexit humilitatem,” they created a soft blended blanket of sound, and then belted out “omnes generations.” Then for “Et misericordia,” they started with a dark, subdued tone and rose gradually to meet the sopranos and altos. Covington had a free, relaxed sense with rhythm and phrasing. In both the penultimate “Ave maris stella” and the last “Magnificat” sections, he let each phrase last its natural length, so the singers waited slightly between phrases, allowing the music to breathe. Details like these made this Vespers far more rewarding and satisfying than many of the most “authentically correct” versions of the past.

Sarah Cahill
Express
June 5, 1998

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Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410

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