From Music in Cincinnati

Hitting a High Note

Posted in: Archives

By Mary Ellyn Hutton
May 15, 1991 - 4:29:57 PM

(first published in The Cincinnati Post May 15, 1991)

World-class.

That is how one New York critic described the March 15 performance of the May Festival Chorus in Carnegie Hall.

The chorus won critical acclaim from New York City's hardened audience with Mendelssohn's "Elijah." Accompanied by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jesus Lopez-Cobos, the chorus performed in a sold-out 100th birthday celebration for Carnegie Hall.

This week, the chorus makes its homecoming appearance at its own annual showcase - the May Festival - and has its own hard act to follow.

Will success spoil their performances?

"The applause is nice, but the real thrill is making that sound," said bass Roger Crice, a business systems analyst for AT&T. "There was a phrase in 'Elijah' where we were trying to get the god Baal to reply to us ("Hear and answer"). The orchestra stopped, and there was nothing but silence from the (orchestral) score, but the sound echoed through Carnegie Hall.

"It's those moments you sing for."

The New Yorker's Andrew Porter - one of the nation's best-known music critics - raved about the "Elijah" performance in his April 1 review:

"Its splendor was the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, a body a hundred and sixty strong, trained by Robert Porco. In New York, it is easy to forget what a world-class large choir sounds like."

Calling it "a most exhilarating evening," New York Times critic James Oestreich saluted the May Festival itself:

"Perhaps no other American city has cultivated the classical choral tradition more assiduously than Cincinnati . . . On Friday evening New Yorkers who gaze longing each year at the May Festival repertory were able to sample it for themselves."

Heady stuff for the all-volunteer chorus, which traces its lineage back to the German singing societies that helped spawn the first May Festival in 1873.

May Festival choristers - teachers, homemakers, people from all walks of life - rehearse three hours a week from September through July. Besides the May Festival, they perform on Cincinnati Symphony and Pops concerts, both at Music Hall and Riverbend, and present their own Carolfest in December.

The May Festival itself means two solid weeks of rehearsals and performances. And it's that time again. The 1991 May Festival opens at 8:15 p.m. Friday at Music Hall with an all-American program led by guest conductor Kenneth Jean, including Bernstein's Overture to "Candide," Copland's "Old American Songs" and excerpts from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess."

How do chorus members feel about their New York triumph?

Mighty fine, that's for sure.

Chorus member Anne Taylor was so excited on her return to Cincinnati that she accidentally erased all the messages on her answering machine before playing them back. And that was before the reviews.

It was May Festival board president Nancy Walker who brought the word to them at a rehearsal at Music Hall.

"She came in and read the (New Yorker) review to us," said first-year chorister Brian Marshall. "We were just in awe. We were so proud of ourselves."

"To hear the New York critics rave about us the way they did was unbelievable," said alto Karen Dybvad, a communications analyst for Kroger Co.

Especially since they had been prepared for the opposite, added fellow alto Deborah Heuer: "Bob Porco had sort of cautioned us that, since New York may consider us 'Midwestern,' the reviews might not be totally favorable. I guess now we have a right to think we're not that bad."

It was Porco who brought them back down to earth, said Marshall, music director for St. Paul's Catholic Church in Florence, Ky.: "He made a few remarks like, 'What can I say? The concert was wonderful.'

"Then he said 'Yes, but . . .' That's kind of his token phrase. And then he reached behind him, picked up all of the scores, and said, 'We have two months.' Everyone just grabbed a score and we started working."

About that "Yes, but . . ."

"Bob's favorite expression is to tell us something was 'good, but . . .' " said Ms. Heuer, choir director at Fairfield's Holy Cross Lutheran Church. "It is the rare occasion when he will say flat out, 'It was good.' "

"It's never perfect, and that's fine," said Ms. Dybvad. "There should always be more to strive for."

Director of choruses for the May Festival since the fall of 1989, Porco is chairman of the choral department at the Indiana University School of Music. He has prepared choruses for Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony and served as chorus master for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Master Chorale with Andre Previn, Kurt Saunderling and Zubin Mehta.

Last Thursday, Porco was back in New York to conduct the IU Philharmonic and Chamber Choir in an all-Mozart program at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, as part of its 1991-92 Mozart bicentennial celebrations.

May Festival choristers credit Porco's leadership with bringing them to a new level of musical achievement. Said businessman Paul Jansack, a 10-year chorus member: "Mediocrity is not accepted. It's attention to detail at all times, be it during warm-up. You do it as if it's a concert."

Porco "commands respect," said Marshall, "but he never forces it. I don't think I've ever heard him yell or raise his voice."

Porco, by the way, returns their compliments. "They deserve all the credit and attention they can get," he said.

Jansack summed up the feelings of chorus members as they go into the 1991 May Festival: "Reviews are fine, but that performance is over. Our focus is like crazy on the coming couple of weekends."

1991 May Festival schedule

Friday: Bernstein, Overture to "Candide," Three Dance Episodes from "On the Town." Copland, "Old American Songs," sets I and II. Gershwin, selections from "Porgy and Bess." Kenneth Jean, guest conductor. Marvis Martin, soprano; Gordon Hawkins, baritone. May Festival Chorus.

Saturday: Bach, Magnificat, BWV 243. Bach, Cantata No. 51, "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen." Beethoven, Mass in C Major, Op.86. Robert Porco, conductor. Marvis Martin, Benita Valente, sopranos; Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano; Jon Garrison, tenor; Andrew Wentzel, bass. May Festival Chorale; May Festival Chorus.

Sunday: Non-subscription concert. Schubert, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo from Mass No. 2, D.167. Mozart, Parto, parto from "La clemenza di Tito." Haydn, Te Deum. Mozart, Vesperae solennes de dominica, K.321. Jean, guest conductor. Ms. Martin, Ms. Mentzer, Garrison, Wentzel. May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus.

May 24: Mozart, "Aveverum corpus," K.618. Symphony No. 40. Mozart, Mass in C Minor, K.427 ("The Great"). Robert Shaw, guest conductor. Ms. Valente; Rosa Lamoreaux, mezzo-soprano; Karl Dent, tenor; Thomas Paul, baritone. May Festival Chorus.

May 25: Berlioz, Requiem. Shaw, conductor. John Aler, tenor. May Festival Chorus; May Festival Youth Chorus; Indianapolis Symphonic Choir.

All concerts are at 8:15 p.m. at Music Hall except Sunday's, which is at 7:15 p.m. at Covington's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Preview recitals by guest artists, free to May Festival ticketholders, will be held on stage from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. before each of the Music Hall concerts: Friday, Suzanne Mentzer; Saturday, Jon Garrison; May 24, Thomas Paul; May 25, Benita Valente.

Subscription prices for the four Music Hall concerts are $27-$144. FestivalPass subscriptions, good for any four admissions to Music Hall concerts, are $60 (orchestra and balcony) and $30 (gallery); call 381-1338. Single tickets are $9-$42, $15 for the Basilica concert. Call 381-3300.