Berkshire Choral International, Berkshire School, Sheffield,
MA
July-August 2015
by Michael J. Moran
Since its founding 34 years ago, Berkshire Choral
International has gathered “choristers from the U.S. and abroad to rehearse and
perform the great choral-orchestral masterpieces,” according to BCI’s program
notes. This summer they presented one concert in Maynooth, Ireland, one in
Portland, OR, and three in Sheffield, MA, the last two of which illustrate the
wide range of programming BCI now undertakes.
Besides the 150-member BCI Chorus, the first concert, “Music
of Duke Ellington and His Era,” featured guest conductor Philip Brunelle,
artistic director and founder of VocalEssence in Minneapolis, pianist Sanford
Moore, four vocal soloists, and the David Berger Jazz Orchestra. The first half
of the program included spirituals arranged or written by various
African-American composers, some familiar (Harry T. Burleigh’s rousing “My
Lord, What a Mornin,” popularized by Marian Anderson), others obscure
(Nathaniel Dett’s revelatory “Ave Maria”), all performed with loving
sensitivity by the mixed chorus and soloists.
The second half was a radio hour of “Duke Ellington on the
Air,” complete with hip announcer (a cool Frank Nemhauser as Dr. Jazz), inept
field reporter (a hilarious Sean Taylor), and sound effects (a versatile Buzz
Moran). But spirited renditions by the singers and the Berger ensemble of
excerpts from the Duke’s rarely heard Sacred Concerts and more mainstream
Ellingtonia (“Come Sunday,” “Take the A Train”) provided rich musical
substance.
The other concert showcased the resident Springfield Symphony
Orchestra with the Chorus and four vocal soloists in more traditional BCI fare,
Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater.” This moving oratorio in ten short movements sets a
thirteenth-century Latin poem about Mary’s grief as she stands at the foot of
the cross bearing her son, Jesus. The text must have resonated with the
composer, who lost three of his young children while writing the piece.
 |
| Erin Freeman |
Conductor Erin Freeman, choral director for the Richmond
Symphony and Virginia Commonwealth University, led a vibrant account of this
characteristically Slavic-flavored score, and the strongly distinctive voices
of the solo quartet – soprano Laura Strickling, mezzo-soprano Ann McMahon
Quintero, tenor Theo Lebow, and bass-baritone Kevin Deas – perfectly
complemented each other.
Britten’s “War Requiem” on this season’s opening Sheffield
program and the announced repertory for 2016, including Masses by Haydn,
Beethoven, and Schubert, confirm the matchless opportunity that BCI offers to
hear great choral works in an idyllic setting.
