Choir's peace concert is one to cherish
By Marilyn Farwell
The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Eugene Concert Choir and the Oregon Mozart Players did more than give a concert of 20th century choral and vocal music on Saturday evening.
They imparted what composer Robert Kyr, in a preconcert lecture, called "a spirit of peace" to a slender but grateful audience.
Artistic director and conductor Diane Retallack chose to focus on works by Igor Stravinsky and Ralph Vaughan Williams, both written in the 1930s, which plead for peace in precarious times, times not unlike our own. Coming at the end of a week devoted to peace activities, this concert, titled "Grant Us Peace," was no less than an inspiration.
Also, in response to an initiative by Retallack, the Lane Literary Guild produced a chapbook of poems titled "Dona Nobis Pacem: Grant Us Peace," a copy of which was handed out to each member of the audience.
Two of the poets, Toni Van Deusen and Ingrid Wendt, read their poems before the concert began.
A line from Wendt's poem "Sanctuary" could serve as an epigram for the concert: "What is a sacred space if not this shelter of song?"
The concert itself began with Kyr's "Voices for Peace," which he composed in response to Sept. 11. Its plangent, hymnlike nature ended on a magical "Om" that faded softly into nothingness.
Stravinsky's pounding and dissonant "Symphony of Psalms" followed. Stravinsky used verses of three psalms as his texts, the first pleading for God to hear the psalmist's prayer, the second acknowledging that God has heard the prayer, and finally, from Psalm 150, a joyful hymn of praise.
But Stravinsky's musical interpretation of these three sections, especially the last, is far from joyful. With its astringent harmony, haunting melodic tidbits and even melancholy "alleluias," this symphony is less than naive. Having lived through the early 20th century civil eruptions, Stravinsky was wary about easy proclamations of peace, proving that peace is never easy to realize, whether politically or musically.
His musical language includes intense, provocative rhythms and an orchestra devoid of violins and violas. There was some fine woodwind playing in the fugal second section, and the chorus was able to inform the harmony with a Zenlike quality that made for an absorbing experience. For those who still consider Stravinsky too modern and difficult, this piece came as a surprise.
Before intermission, the orchestra, along with soprano Carmen Pelton, performed Sergei Rachmaninoff's lush, wordless vocal air, "Vocalise."
Meant to be a moment to reflect on personal meanings of peace, it was the least successful musical performance of the evening.
Pelton has a pure and focused soprano that served her splendidly in the previous work, but here, except for a few dazzling moments, her exaggerated portamentos spoiled the effect. There is a fine line between connecting notes and sliding them together, and Pelton crossed that line too often.
The second portion of the concert was devoted entirely to Ralph Vaughan Williams' cantata, "Dona Nobis Pacem." If nothing else had gone right that evening, the stunning rendering of this beautiful work would have saved the concert. Given that the other choral performances were excellent, this mixture of pleas for peace amid the ever encompassing drums of war that Vaughan Williams heard as World War II closed in around Europe in 1936 was a fitting close to a superb concert.
Unlike Stravinsky's neoclassical reserve, Vaughan Williams works on a more visceral level. That immediacy is in part the result of Vaughan Williams' use of Walt Whitman's poetry instead of Stravinsky's use of Latin versions of the psalms.
Both soloists, Pelton and baritone James Bobick, were splendid. Pelton added melting pleas for peace and Bobick's warm baritone dramatically intoned his proclamations and warnings. I have rarely heard the ECC chorus consistently sing so well. Although without texts to follow, the audience found the last sections difficult to understand, the chorus otherwise observed the dynamic ranges and rhythmic drive so essential to this work and relished the diction of Whitman's poems.
This was a concert to cherish.
Marilyn Farwell is a professor emerita of English at the University of Oregon.
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