Aaron Jay
Kernis: Music is a Gift (2004, world premiere)
Dominick Argento: To God (1994)
Kurt Weill: Tchaikovsky (from Lady in the
Dark)
Benny Andersson: De Flyendes Kör
(Flight, from Kristina från
Duvemåla)
Randall Davidson: Song of the Prodigal
Son’s Brother (from The History of
Evil)
Traditional: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
(arr. Dale Adelmann, 1988)
Aaron Copland: Stomp Your Foot (from
The Tender Land)
Steve Heitzig: Nobel Symphony (2001)
VocalEssence
Chorus
Minnesota Boychoir, Mark Johnson, director
Vern Sutton,
tenor
Lisa Drew, mezzo soprano
Michael Jorgensen, baritone
Gustavus Adolphus College Symphony Orchestra,
Warren Friesen, director
Interactive
computer-generated visual interpretation created
by Minneapolis College of Art + Design
Piotr Szyhalski,
Project Director
Philip Brunelle, conductor
If, after
all, men cannot always make history have a
meaning, they can always act so that their
own lives have one." – Albert Camus,
quoted in Steve Heitzeg’s Nobel Symphony
As my
sister and I prowled through Minneapolis’
Orchestra Hall lobby before the afternoon
got underway, we found ourselves in front
of a large photographic grid about eight feet
square, with 128 small wooden blocks, each
corresponding to a measure in the Peace
section of Steve Heitzeg’s impressive Nobel
Symphony. The audience was invited to
pick up and place these at random on the display,
and then the resulting pattern would be used
to order the sequence of visuals in the work.
Originally
premiered in 2001, Heitzeg’s massive opus
was augmented this time by state-of-the-art
graphics created by students at the Minneapolis
College of Art + Design, impressively directed
by Piotr Szyhalski and projected on a huge
screen above the chorus. Each of the symphony’s
six sections were introduced by vertical lines
oscillating back and forth, leaving words
in their wake, and interspersed with images
of wood being sawed, shaped, and sanded to
construct a chair, reflecting a poignant recurring
sentence by Pablo Neruda, "Peace begins
in a single chair."
Heitzeg,
who used a simple descending scale to plaintive
effect in his choral piece Little Tree,
here employs more complex language with debts
to Bartók, Barber and Stravinsky, all
married to powerful texts by Nobel Prize winners
Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King,
the Dalai Lama, Dag Hammarskjöld, Rigoberta
Menchú, Nelson Mandela, Pablo Neruda,
Samuel Beckett, and Albert Camus among others.
Near the end of the work, Mandela’s decisive
words "I was not born with a hunger
to be free; I was born free" had
the VocalEssence singers soaring in a fierce,
almost barbaric declamation. The excellent
percussion section deserved its own ovation
for the second section alone, called Physics,
which deploys unusually diverse effects, including
rocks tapped together and popped bubble wrap
(plastic packing material, for non-American
readers). In addition to world instruments
(such as djembe and sisal rattles) and natural
ones (gourds and fallen olive tree branches),
the array also included "alternative
instruments" such as aluminum foil, chopsticks,
hardbound books, metal tablespoons, empty
metal soup cans, a plowshare and prosthetic
leg limbs.
At the
close, when the images onscreen show a fully
completed chair, the room darkened completely
but for a solitary pool of light on the stage,
where Charles Lazarus’ gleaming trumpet delivered
the final somewhat sorrowful Postlude for
the Rights of All. Lisa Drew, whom I
heard last season in the stunning Sandström
High Mass, was once again in luminous
form, and especially moving in the section
titled Chaconne for Healing. Baritone
Michael Jorgensen added a special poignancy
in the section titled Economics: To have
and have not, his voice blending beautifully
with the excellent Minnesota Boychoir. Conductor
Philip Brunelle brought out decisive, often
lyrical work from the young players of Gustavus
Adolphus College, often playing with a maturity
and professionalism that seemed far beyond
their years.
At the
conclusion, the audience pretty much rose
to its feet as one, knowing that it had heard
"something worthwhile" but perhaps
not able to quantify exactly what that something
might be. A woman next to me murmured, "Oh
my," obviously moved, and another with
whom I spoke at intermission had tears in
her eyes. Perhaps some of the emotional impact
of Heitzeg’s work rests on the realization
that solutions to its sprawling issues seem
despairingly far in the distance.
The
first half of the concert was an all-over-the-map
survey of some of VocalEssence’s "greatest
hits" over the last 35 years, but the
afternoon opened with a glowing new fanfare
by Aaron Jay Kernis, Music is a Gift, written
for the ensemble with moving lines by Philip
Littell: "And where is music? Everywhere.
In blood. The beating of my heart. A bird."
Kernis set these texts with great sensitivity,
making the most of VocalEssence’s refined
sound. Equally appealing was Argento’s To
God, performed by the group’s Ensemble
Singers and intended as a tribute to one of
Brunelle’s former assistants who died. The
piece ends with a long, softly held chord
in the chorus, while a solitary trumpet melody
(beautifully done by Lazarus) depicts the
departed woman.
With
music by Randall Davidson and a libretto by
Garrison Keillor, "Song of the Prodigal
Son’s Brother" from The History of
Evil might seem an odd choice for a choral
group, and frankly as it began I thought its
parody of "good ol’ boy" humor was
going to be a bit tiresome, at least in this
context. But the piece quickly ignited when
the men of VocalEssence charged in hilariously
with the choral refrain, in wry counterpoint
to the three excellent soloists: James Bohn,
Ryan French and Dan Dressen. Kurt Weill’s
"Tchaikovsky," with the veteran
Vern Sutton, was immaculately sung but seemed
perhaps a bit lightweight in comparison with
some of the other works on the program, although
it did provide a brief, humorous break from
all the drama.
The
singers did a beautiful job with Benny Andersson’s
piece, as dark and stoic as a Russian folk
song, its somber text dealing with an 1862
Sioux Indian uprising in Minnesota, and one
of the highlights of the entire day was Dale
Adelmann’s stunningly moody arrangement of
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," anchored
by Steve Burger’s mellow baritone. Aaron Copland’s
"Stomp Your Feet," a rousing barn
dance from The Tender Land, opened
with an attention-getting clarion from the
group’s rock-solid bass section, and the precision
of the group swept up the audience to end
the first half on a very high artistic plain.
The
Minnesota area is dotted with outstanding
choral groups, and in this crowded arena,
Philip Brunelle’s consistent vision in exploring
both the familiar and the unknown is one of
the high water marks. Speakers during the
evening (including R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis
and Dr. Anton Armstrong, director of the famous
St. Olaf Choir) lauded Brunelle over and over
for his work on many fronts, such as his longstanding
commitment to African American composers through
the Witness series of concerts and
recordings. This afternoon was taped for later
broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio, and is
well worth seeking out for many reasons.
Bruce Hodges
For more information:
http://www.vocalessence.com/
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