NEWS & RECORD ARCHIVED ARTICLE

NEWS & RECORD ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Choral Society at its best in season-ending show

Date: April 23, 2007 Edition(s): News & Record

Page: B3 Section: Triad

Source: TIM LINDEMAN Dateline: GREENSBORO

GREENSBORO - The final concert of the Greensboro Choral Society's 2006-07 season was presented before a large, attentive and enthusiastic audience Saturday night in Christ United Methodist Church. Two dramatic works made up the program - Brahms' Schicksalslied ("Song of Fate") and Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night). It was a particularly emotional evening as this was conductor Welborn Young's final concert with the GCS, ending a successful seven-year run with the 125-voice volunteer chorus.

Brahms' "orchestrated secular chorus" is based on the novel Hyperion by Friedrich Hölderlin.

Many critics link the setting of the three-stanza poem in mood to the German Requiem, which the composer had penned several years earlier.

Indeed the opening "You walk in the light" is ethereal, with heavenly sounds elicited from both the chorus and the 30-piece orchestra accompanying the GCS.

The flowing lines were lovingly presented by the chorus, accompanied by woodwinds.

The third verse, however, paints a different picture, and under Young's intense conducting, the chorus presented the stark "we suffering humans vanish" with intensity and power.

Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht is based on a poem by Goethe and is described as a "dramatic ballad." The text is a curious one, about the intersection of old religious beliefs (symbolized by Druids and witches) and Christianity. Four soloists are employed to provide full theatrical effect: mezzo Levone Tobin-Scott, tenor Robert Bracey, baritone Robert Wells and bass-baritone James Wilson.

A long overture begins the piece - a romantic evocation of "the transition to spring," which even includes a mountain storm.

After this instrumental movement, the tenor soloist announces that May has arrived, and the women of the choir respond with joyous singing.

Robert Bracey's singing was magnificent - heralding the change of seasons with operatic high notes that were glorious and easily rose above both chorus and orchestra. The chorus matched Bracey's intensity with animated and energetic singing.

Tobin-Scott's dark mezzo interrupted the merry-making with a warning. She sang about "certain doom" with sinister undertones lacing her voice. The chorus of women picked up her fearful demeanor.

Robert Well's rich baritone brought the crowd's attention back to the importance of the day at hand, and he urged his fellow pagans to turn their attention to their duty. Guards were sent out to keep watch (great military music here).

One of the guards (James Wilson) intoned a challenge to make fools of the Christians in a hearty recitative-like passage. Now the fun began, as the chorus picked up Wilson's urging to "Come! With prongs and pitchforks."

What followed was wild music, eerily set as only a master orchestrator such as Mendelssohn could provide. The melee depicting these "denizens of hell" succeeds in terrorizing a Christian guard.

The piece ended dramatically with a hymn about holding fast to one's faith.

Saturday night's concert showed the Choral Society at its best, with dramatic music that was fun to sing and provided great theatricality in a concert setting. Kudos to Maestro Young for assembling this intrepid hoard of singers and providing the community with such a great offering of choral music.

Tim Lindeman is a freelance contributor.