Three big choral pieces anchored Seattle Pro Musica’s Lenten program, Passio, Saturday night at St. James Cathedral, one each from the early years of the 20th century.
A.M.D.G.: Ad majorem Dei Gloriam, Benjamin Britten’s 1939 setting of seven religious poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, six of which were sung Saturday, are evidence of the young composer’s skill in writing for voices and of his ability to portray the meaning of the words, such as in the lilting “Rosa Mystica” and the vigorous passionate “God’s Grandeur.” There are hints in the music of ideas he would use a few years later for A Ceremony of Carols.
The second came in the middle of Pro Musica’s program, David Lang’s 2008 the little match girl passion, a work which won a Pulitzer Prize that year. It’s a setting, in the style of Bach’s Passions, of Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the poor child selling matches on a bitter winter night who freezes to death, afraid to go home after making no sales, but the sad story is interleaved with her hope and sweet memories. Lang’s style is highly unusual, particularly the way he composes the narrative sections with many pauses and hesitations, many repetitions of a word or phrase.
Lastly, at the end of the program, came part of Alexander Gretchaninov’s Passion Week from 1911-12. This is a relatively unheard composer but this work falls squarely in the mode of his compatriot and contemporary Rachmaninov.
Around these three works, Pro Musica’s artistic director, Karen P. Thomas, programmed ancient plainchant settings and contemporary sacred pieces Paul Mealor, Joan Szymko, Kay Rhie and Kenneth Leighton, plus one from the 17th century, Weelkes’ “When David heard.”
Thomas arranged the program and the singers to give variety to what was a difficult program to sing and often difficult for many listeners to assimilate, due to the dissonance used in many of the more recent works. Both halves of the program began at the west end of the cathedral with small groups singing, either men or women, and followed by plainchant during processionals to the center of the cathedral for the big works, the Lang being sung by just a small group of singers.
As always with this group the vocal quality was very high, and the works chosen complemented by the acoustics of the cathedral. There was little use of vibrato so that harmonies were clear and the sopranos sounded almost like boys, particularly in the very high range used by Britten. It’s never easy to hear words in St. James, so helpful to have them printed in the program. Pitch sense was uniformly excellent.