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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
February 12, 2011
Brian Wismath is a busy man - he is directing no fewer than three choirs, along with holding down a "regular" day job. For the Sound the Pipes concert all three of those choirs performed, individually and together. (There is a bit of overlap in the choir memberships, too - apparently some singers can't get enough.) With the Victoria Conservatory of Music Chorale, the University of Victoria Chamber Singers, and Vox Humana, Wismath had the opportunity to push the repertoire into places where the smaller ensembles cannot go.*
All the choirs sang very well, with a fine sense of dynamics and balance, something that must be a challenge when three different groups are performing together. With that said, one could hear the polish that comes with maturity in Vox Humana, when contrasted with the exuberant voices of the student choirs.
The concert also featured organist Nicholas Fairbanks, which also opened up additional repertoire. Fairbanks accompanied the choirs on such works as Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb and Cantique de Jean Racine, by Fauré. His solo piece, Widor's Toccata from Symphony No.5, was a showpiece of dazzling virtuosity that musically left me a cold.
The concert opened with Immortal Bach, by Knut Nystedt, a Norwegian composer whose work was new to me. It was sung "in the round", with the members of the three choirs arranged in the floor of the hall. The piece revisits one of Bach's chorales, essentially re-arranging it by changing the duration of each of the parts. Alas, I was seated in the balcony so missed much of the effect. (Note to self: check with musicians beforehand to determine seating).
Another of the highlights was two works by Jeff Enns, a Canadian composer who is making a name with his choral writing. Enns isn't afraid of making a lovely sound, and I have always found his pieces a delight to hear. The Enns works were performed by Vox Humana, and the ensemble singing of this group was quite remarkable.
The weakest offering, at least from a compositional standpoint, was by the most famous of the composers on the programme. In the midst of the other works that stretched one's ears, "Hear My Prayer" seemed rather mundane and ordinary.
The piece that followed the Mendelssohn - James MacMillan's Magnificat - was the highlight of the concert. Opening with the organ playing lines that cry out for a theremin, the piece recalls the placid/turbulent contrast of works like Ives's The Unanswered Question and Berg's Wozzeck. The choir sings the reverential liturgical elements of the Magnificat with harmonically and rhythmically conservative lines. These are then rudely interrupted by the cacophony of the organ, wheezing and pounding the uncertainty and fear that most certainly would strike a young woman who, upon awaking from a dream, finds herself pregnant with God's child. This was a most convincing performance, and I most certainly want to hear this piece again, particularly in its orchestral version.
Full disclosure: the reviewer's son sings in Vox Humana.
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