This review of Saturday night's
performance by the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers comes from Megan Helm, a
Kansas City music educator who lives in
Lawrence.
Take 24 professional voices from
around the country, hand them some of the most challenging unaccompanied choral
music from the last six centuries, give them one week to rehearse and three
days with the conductor and then record a CD and film a documentary about the
experience.
The Simon Carrington Chamber Singers
did it all last week, culminating in their final performance Saturday night in
Lawrence.
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church hosted the group in its
second of two concerts promoted as the Home Ground Tour. The ensemble revealed
its newfound sound to the “standing room only” audience of hopeful listeners.
What they heard was a chamber choir
from the Carrington era that had matured and seasoned to near perfection.
Carrington, a founding member of the King’s Singers, was choir director at
Kansas
University
from 1994 to 2001, and he’s retiring this year from
Yale
University.
This group will be one of his retirement projects.
The “
Simon
Sound,”
as choir members call it, is a youthful, pure and flexible sound built upon the
English a capella choral tradition. This new group exemplifies this ideal but
with vocal maturity and the life experience necessary to understand both the
text and context of the music.
Some highlights included:
• Soprano and
Lawrence native Stefanie Moore being featured
in the all-vocal arrangement of Purcell’s “Music for a While.” Hearing the
continuo through the humming voices instead of instruments was an adjustment
and at times the balance favored the choir, but
Moore gave a pristine performance.
• A French Baroque mini-oratorio by
Marc-Antoine Charpentier called “Le Reniement de St. Pierre.” The challenge is
the proper pronunciation of the French Latin, which the singers executed
admirably.
• Representing German Leider, the
Brahms songs “Rosmarin” and “Vergangen ist mir Gluck und Heil,” sounded smooth
and polished. The women reveled in the light brightness of the texture, and the
men supported them with a silky subtlety. This ensemble sang the German text
with ease.
• Ian Coleman, composer and chair of
the music department at
William
Jewell
College,
set the Langston Hughes poem “Dreams” to create “Hold Fast to Dreams” for the
group. Using emphasized syllables, the piece starts with a hiss and pop then
slowly builds to a Disney-esk theme. A sudden high note from a single soprano
is followed by harmonic dissonances that ultimately resolve in a gorgeous final
chord.
• The final piece of the night,
“Grant Us Thy Piece” by local composer Geoff Wilcken, who also sang in the bass
section, capped off the evening perfectly. The benediction was thoughtfully
crafted and should be added to any choir directors’ repertoire.
Whether the Simon Carrington Chamber
Singers will continue to delight audiences in the future is still to be seen.
Compressing, infrequent rehearsals can often delay the full development of a
fledgling group but, with seasoned singers who are as well prepared and
professional as this ensemble, anything is possible.
