Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday would have been Saturday, and many musical tributes to him have been performed this year, but one of the most telling happened Saturday night. Where many tributes have included suites from West Side Story, or the Overture to Candide, both deservedly popular and well-known works, The Esoterics, under its director Eric Banks, chose to honor him with a concert entirely of his sacred music at St. James Cathedral, the perfect setting.
The first half comprised music from the Christian liturgy, plus excerpts from “The Lark.” This last may have seemed somewhat out-of-place for people (like this writer) who didn’t understand the genesis of the work, since it included a soldier’s song (with carefree whistling) and a court song about a lover. Only later, when looking it up, was it made clear that this was incidental music composed in 1955 to accompany Jean Anouilh’s 1952 play of the same name, about the trial and execution of Joan of Arc. Program notes would have been helpful. [There were program notes. The reviewer seems to have simply missed them — Ed.]
The second half comprised music from the Jewish liturgy, and for both halves of the program each line, in Latin or French for the first half, was usefully followed by a translation, as was the Hebrew of the latter half.
At the request of the conductor, there was no applause until after each half ended, which made for a seamless continuance of the artfully designed sequences of choruses. To start with, Banks chose music from Bernstein’s 1988 Missa Brevis and his 1971 Mass, as well as an unexpected warm up from his 1970 Mass of lively sung nonsense words: Du-bing, du-bang and du bong, plus the four excerpts from “The Lark.” Having Bernstein’s works grouped together like this gave an insight into how his musical ideas into divergent harmonies progressed, as well as showing how his sense of rhythm and syncopation had been there from the start.
The Esoterics is just the right chorus to sing this a cappella music, given its unerring pitch sense and security as well as a diminished amount of vibrato allowing clean harmonies to emerge. A cappella may be not quite the right word, but the accompaniment of harp and percussion (marimba, bells and drums), except for cue notes at the start, gave no help to the singers as to what note they might need to be on.
The music for the Jewish liturgy was mainly composed earlier, the latest from the “Kaddish” Symphony written in 1963 and, for one Jewish listener, it felt strange, if beautiful, to hear Kaddish sung in this setting where she had recently been hearing it with her family on the death of her grandfather. This was one of the more familiar works performed, the other, far better known, was the “Chichester Psalms,” again in excerpts. For this half, the majestic cathedral organ joined in.
So much of this music has an irrepressible joy in it, be it with jazzy elements or clashing bells and dissonance. Several choir soloists had well-sung roles, the major one being that of counter-tenor Jack Wheeler, whose effortless, clear sound shone expressively in many of the sections. The Esoterics was divided into two choirs, and they shared the different parts between them, only coming together for the Chichester Psalms and briefly in a few other places.
The whole was a deeply satisfying performance, appreciated by a large audience and not least coming at the end of a summer with not much going on chorally. John Carrington played the harp; Matthew Kocmieroski, percussion; and Joseph Adam, organ.
