Berkshire Choral Festival
Berkshire School, Sheffield, MA
by Kait Rankins
Every year, the Berkshire Choral Festival brings together
choral singers from around the world to live and breathe the music for a week,
attending music classes and rehearsing for five hours a day. Each singing week
culminates in a concert for the public. While BCF's home is in Sheffield, MA, they
also have singing weeks in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Mondsee/Salzburg, Austria.
This year BCF opened their season in Sheffield with what Beethoven acknowledged
as his greatest work: the Missa Solemnis, a liturgical work containing the text
of the Latin Catholic Mass.
Under the leadership of guest conductor Craig Hella Johnson,
the 80-minute performance flew by, taking on the highs and lows of worship:
quiet pleas for mercy and triumphant declaration of faith in God. The choir was
accompanied by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, BCF's partner for the past
31 years, who handled the complex piece with masterful ease.
The concert featured soloists Mary Wilson (soprano), Emily
Lodine (mezzo-soprano), Derek Chester (tenor), and Kevin Deas (bass), all of them
accomplished classical vocalists who came together to create a magical quartet
that led the 200-member choir. Of particular note was Wilson, whose bell-like
soprano was bright and easily distinguishable from the choir's rounder sounds.
Her tone added clarity and precision to the performance, particularly when
paired with Lodine's mezzo-soprano in close harmonies.
At times, the choir seemed to lag slightly and didn't always
seem to be together when it came to diction (one notable moment being the
clatter of "t" consonants ending a short "et" during the
Credo), and there were moments when the tenors and basses should have been in
focus but the far more numerous sopranos and altos overpowered them. However,
the overall sound was full and majestic, inspiring whispered praise from the
audience following the Gloria.
BCF continues its season with three more concerts in
Sheffield, starting with Defiant Requiem, a concert drama about Jewish
prisoners during WWII created and conducted by Murry Sidlin.
