Central Lutheran Church, venue for "Brits & Brass," VocalEssence's survey of English music, did the chorus no favors. It swallowed the vocal sound, especially when pitted against the Copper Street Brass Quintet and the organ.
This was unfortunate, because conductor Philip Brunelle programmed a clever and wide-ranging program that celebrated the British tradition. His vibrant leadership and the chorus' strong performance deserved a better acoustic.
The focus of the concert was on contemporary music, including the U.S. premiere of "The Night's Untruth" by Tarik O'Regan, first performed by the BBC Singers in 2010. O'Regan is a rising light among British composers, with two Grammy nominations and an opera premiered last year at Covent Garden.
"The Night's Untruth" is a setting of five poems from Shakespeare to John Keats to Hart Crane on the subject of sleep. He used chromatics to convey an air of mystery and dissonances to create a sense of profound agitation. O'Regan is a master at setting text, but that would have been unclear without the poems printed in the program, because the acoustics muddied the chorus' diction.
The most extended piece was "The Far Theatricals of Day" by Jonathan Dove, familiar from two of VocalEssence's "Welcome Christmas" concerts. The six-movement work was a setting of numerous verses by Emily Dickinson on nature and time. Dove's melodies captured the sublime simplicity of the poetry, even with the rich sonorities of the brass quintet and organ.
A quartet of vocal soloists joined the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers for the work. Soprano Maria Jette was the standout, opening and closing the work. Her crystalline soprano nicely conveyed the poetry's childlike innocence. The quartet, which also included tenor Dan Dressen, bass James Bohn and alto Hyounsoo Sohn, blended well in the contrapuntal passages.
Brunelle is a showman, and he brought a nice touch of theatricality to the evening. After the Ensemble Singers performed Judith Bingham's 1994 "The Darkness is No Darkness," a Fantasy on "Thou Wilt Keep Them in Perfect Peace," by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, he had the full chorus, behind the scenes, perform the 1853 original. It was a most effective juxtaposition.
The Copper Street Brass Quintet, whom Brunelle positioned all around the space, and Robert Ridgell's organ added to the theatricality.
