LA Master Chorale- Adams & Mozart. October 18, 2009

Grant Gershon, Music Director
Risa Larson, soprano
Tracy Van Fleet, mezzo-soprano
James Callon, tenor
Reid Bruton, bass

os Angeles Master Chorale patrons have, in recent years, taken on a
quality of true groupies: missing the monthly-something concerts over
the long summer, but returning in eager numbers to concerts opening
the new season, and so it was o the occasion of a return of Mozart’s
Requiem, composed with a little help from his friends, and five stunning
choruses from John Adams’s opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, which
opened festivities on Gala Night at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The aforementioned choruses address, without guile, the unending struggle of the Palestinians and Jews in that fragment of the world known, respectively, as Palestine and Israel. Each side gets two choruses, plus a recounting of the exile of Hagar and her son, Ishmael, and their rescue from death by an angel. This fence-straddling has evoked criticism of the opera as being “anti-Semitic” on one hand, and “pro Zionist” on the other. Mission accomplished.

John Adams’s music is fundamentally his, that is to say, it is authentic, not derived, nor does it seem to sound like the music of others. His writing for chorus and orchestra is rock solid, and therefore, performers sing and play with confidence and authentic involvement in the music.

The first chorus begins with the words of librettist Alice Goodman: “My father’s house was razed in nineteen forty-eight when the Israelis passed over our street.” Passed over, as an ironic reference to the angel of death taking the first-born of the Egyptians, an act which opened the path to freedom by the enslaved Hebrews. The chorus continues: “Let the supplanter (the Israelis) look upon his work. Our faith will take the stones he broke and break his teeth.” The seconds following the subito cutoff by Maestro Grant Gershon was perhaps the most riveting moment in his eight-plus seasons with the Master Chorale. No one, performers or audience, dared to breathe for long seconds. No small part of this rare effect was the deep-seated-sounding anger of the Master Chorale at the words “break his teeth.” The tensions of today’s Gaza and West Bank were brought live and in person to all in attendance. Riveting.

By comparison, the second chorus soothed us with gentle, sad Jewish humor: “When I paid off the taxi I had no money left, and, of course, no luggage.” And “Now only doctors gather at my bedside, to tell what the Almighty has prepared for me. A woman comes in to keep the place looking occupied.” Sung by an old man to his absent, beloved wife or country, one is not exactly sure.

Day Chorus and Night Chorus are the titles of choruses four and five, and each contains disturbing but starkly drawn visuals of the human condition silhouetted against the backdrop of violence in what appears to be endless war between the sons of Father Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. To put a fine point on it, the concert was partially financially supported by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which was brought into being to remember the youthful journalist Daniel Pearl and to remind us of his tragic and unbelievably vicious death at the hands of extremists, in the name of religion.

The anger, and sometimes contextually vicious singing of the Master Chorale in pursuit of the Adams choruses carried over, with energetic momentum, into the post-intermission Requiem of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as aided and abetted by his student Franz Xavier Süssmayr, who attended the composer’s final hours. Herr Süssmayr did his best under hurry-up conditions imposed upon him by Mozart’s widow Constanze, who seems to have had an urgent need for money. He also had to cut corners where possible, including the final Amen of the Lacrimosa, which Mozart had designated to be a fugue, but where Süssmayr inserted a simple, two chord “Amen”. Various individuals have attempted to “fill out” the missing parts, or to substitute their vision of what Mozart would have written had he not died before the work was finished. But even in this edition of the work, one can clearly hear when the musical baton is handed from Mozart to Süssmayr to Levin.

In the hectic days following the great composer’s death, the score was not treated as a precious legacy, but was carelessly handled in many respects. Evidence in the form of sketches appeared in the 1990’s in Berlin that, once authenticated, seemed to shed new light on the composition and Mozart’s intentions. Professor Robert D. Levin of Harvard University took on the challenge not only to harmonize the original manuscript, analyze Süssmayr’s contributions and the new sketches, but to add orchestration based thereon that give the work a fuller, richer substance without imposing yet another foreign hand into the work, most telling in the new fire brought to the Dies irae and Rex tremendae evoking Don Giovanni-like terror. On the other hand, Prof. Levin constructed a fugue for the Lacrimosa “Amen” allegedly based on the newly-discovered sketches, that upon first hearing, leaves the impression of a greater struggle than Mozart, but with a lot less transparency. One has only to compare any of the orchestral fugues of Mozart’s late symphonies versus Prof. Levin’s contribution. Mozart never wrote anything that sounded muddy. Doubtlessly, someone, somewhere, will write another “Amen” fugue to tack onto the Lacrimosa, itself one of the most intensely moving eight measures of music Mozart ever wrote as his eyes and music ascended heavenward.

The Requiem, a blend of Baroque, Classical and Romantic style elements, requires a solo quartet, and in the manner of the Master Chorale, these are prize assignments given to Chorale members. On this occasion, the soprano was Risa Larson, the alto was Tracy Van Fleet, the tenor was James Callon and Reid Bruton provided the baritone part, although he was listed in the program as a bass. Mr. Bruton’s baritone voice was fine if a bit small but unable to project the lowest half of the Tuba mirum solo into the house. Mr. Callon sang well but seemed to hold back as though afraid of unbalancing the quartet. Ms. Larson disappointed again with a poor technique that time and again betrayed her slim resources. Ms. Van Fleet was clearly heads and shoulders better than her companions, projecting her alto lines well over the heads of the orchestra and into the hall in the quartet’s Benedictus, a beautiful movement clearly by Mozart. One utterly delicious moment in an otherwise solemn work is the solo quartet’s final phrase of Recordare, a fleeting reminiscence of “Cosi Fan Tutte".

The Master Chorale sang beautifully, lovingly and responded to Maestro Gershon’s nuanced and precise direction. Most notable in the new season is a stronger and more solid tone coming from the bass section, with all four sections singing with more focused sound than in the past. The coloratura work of the Chorale could not be surpassed. The sopranos and altos broke hearts with their wondrously sung but heart-wrenchingly sad “voca me” straight from the soul of the dying composer.

For tickets to other Los Angeles Master Chorale concerts, call (213) 972-7211 or visit www.lamc.org

Douglas Neslund is Classical Voice correspondent and a noted voice/choral teacher in Los Angeles.