The Roman Catholic
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York
City, benefits from having an 18-strong
choir of professional singers. This
choir is the fulcrum of a very active
music ministry and concert programme
at the church.
The present CD shows
the range of the choir, including as
it does repertoire that takes us from
chant and medieval music via J. S. Bach
to contemporary American liturgical
music. The first thing to say is that
all the music is extremely well served
by what is evidently an expert choir
that has been splendidly trained. The
choir makes an excellent sound that
is bright and forward – which I like
– and their tuning, balance and diction
are all first rate. The various solos
that crop up within the recital are
all taken by members of the choir and
without exception they are taken to
excellent effect
The choice of repertoire
is quite eclectic. The music is built
around the theme of a "spiritual
journey", according to the rather
fulsome booklet notes. This journey
"may be said to reflect Christ’s
persecution and suffering intermingled
with his concession to God’s will with
his redeeming final transformation into
pure Love."
The music traverses
the historical tradition of the Christian
church and it’s interesting that while
all the earlier items are, inevitably,
European, only one of the twentieth
century items comes from the Old World.
I’m afraid that medieval music, such
as that by Pérotin, is not really
to my taste but the choir seem to perform
his piece well enough and definitely
with an earthy vigour. They’re certainly
excellent in the motet by Gesualdo in
which his quirky, adventurous harmonies,
which so caught the ear of Stravinsky,
are well realised. The Bach motet is
also very successful for the bright
tone of the singers and the good balance
achieved by conductor, Kent Tritle,
ensures that Bach’s inventive part-writing
is put across with admirable clarity
and life.
I also admired the
way the singers delivered the chastely
pure setting of O Sacrum Convivium
by Tallis. The positioning of this piece
on the disc is very shrewd for Tallis
offers something of a relief after the
complex choral textures of John Kennedy’s
Someday. In saying that I don’t
mean to disparage Mr. Kennedy’s piece
at all, for it is a fine one, but the
Tallis piece here fulfils something
of the function of a musical sorbet
to refresh the listener’s palate.
John Kennedy’s piece
is rather typical of the twentieth-century
American compositions included here
for all feature a degree of rich or
complex textures. Kennedy’s piece sets
some typically erudite and difficult
words by Teilhard de Chardin. It sounds
an extremely demanding piece to sing.
It begins slowly, relying on inner energy
for momentum but as the piece continues
so the energy in the music becomes more
overt. Kennedy takes his sopranos up
into the stratosphere at times but these
singers seem to cope admirably. It’s
a most interesting piece but I did wonder
if it was a little too long. The piece
by Kevin Oldham is short and eloquent.
Its homophonic style is deceptively
simple but, once again, I can’t believe
it’s easy to sing. It’s sung very well
here and the brief ecstatic climaxes
are conveyed with genuine power.
I was also impressed
with Calvin Hampton’s Faithful Cross.
This is an ecstatic piece that, once
again, features complex choral textures.
A couple of times a wonderful soprano
line soars memorably out of and over
the rest of the choir and a solo soprano
brings the work to a lovely end. The
only reservation I have is that during
the second half of the piece the word
"sweetest" occurs many times.
Because there are so many different
lines, each singing that word at different
times, the effect is very sibilant.
I don’t think the fault lies with the
singers: it’s perhaps a miscalculation
by the composer.
All of the modern American
works – and their composers – were new
to me. The sole European representative
among the twentieth-century composers
is James MacMillan. I have heard his
outstanding Christus Vincit several
times before and so this is a useful
yardstick against which to measure this
American choir. Suffice to say that
they turn in as good a performance as
I’ve heard.
The recital includes
a number of modern arrangements of American
music from an earlier age. The arrangement
by Adolphus Hailstork of Motherless
Child is effective though perhaps
it lasts just a little too long. I was
less taken with Scott Warren’s Hallelu.
This starts off promisingly enough but
soon becomes harmonically just too clever
for its own good. I’m afraid a similar
verdict must be delivered on Nancy Wertsch’s
version of Blessed Assurance
in which the harmonic complexities of
the arrangement seem to overwhelm the
essential simplicity of the original
melody.
However, in a mixed
recital like this it’s almost inevitable
that there will be some items that appeal
to the listener less than others. On
the whole this is a fine and nicely
varied programme that is executed with
skill and élan by a fine
choir. The parishioners of St. Ignatius
Loyola church can count themselves fortunate
that their regular liturgy is enhanced
by fine singing such as this.
John Quinn
www.saintignatiusloyola.org
Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola/Kent Tritle
