KSO's Chant-Inspired Program Sublime at Cathedral Basilica

Nave of St. Mary's Cathedral of the Assumption, Covington, Kentucky

   Having left its long-time performance home at Northern Kentucky University’s Greaves Hall, the KSO is visiting several community venues this season.

Michael Chertock

   Acoustically speaking, few things really “fit” Covington’s great Gothic cathedral, except perhaps its two fine organs, but experiencing music there inevitably builds on its visual splendor.

   Gregorian chant was the unifying element in Sunday’s program, which spanned heaven and hell with “Musica Celestis” by Aaron Jay Kernis, “Totentanz” ("Dance of Death") by Liszt and Maurice Durufle’s Requiem.  All make reference to chant in one way or another.

   The concert demonstrated once again what can be done with imagination, hard work – and above all, heart – traits owned to the max by music director/executive director James R. Cassidy, general manager Angela Williamson, their staff of three (!) and roster of gifted, free lance musicians.

   With the orchestra and choruses placed on the platform surrounding the altar, the best place to hear and see was probably near the front or under the dome, where the sound goes first. (That was this listener’s conclusion, having sat in two locations on Sunday.)

   Kernis’ ethereal “Musica Celstis,” like Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings, derives from a string quartet.  The composer took inspiration, he said, from medieval composer/abbess Hildegard of Bingen.

  The Prelude to Wagner’s “Lohengrin” came to mind in the very first hushed chord (which is even in the same key).  So did Barber’s Adagio in the shaping of the work, which twice reached a pinnacle high in the violins followed by a cutoff and a return to serenity.  There was something like Arvo Pärt-style Mystical Minimalism, too, but with greater harmonic complexity.  All in all, it was a sublime experience as rendered by Cassidy and the KSO strings in the cathedral’s stained glass-lit, neo-Notre Dame environment.

Portion of fresco "The Triumph of Death," Campo Santo, Pisa, Italy

   As Cassidy reminded the audience in pre-concert remarks from the pulpit, Chertock, now chairman of the piano department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a recording artist, was soloist with the orchestra on its very first concert in November, 1992.

   Durufle’s Requiem, heard at the front of the nave, was near ideal in the Cathedral.  The KSO Chorale (Sarah Harvey associate chorus master) and the Cincinnati Choral Society (Douglas Belland, artistic director) came together beautifully -- nearly 100 voices -- in the chant-infused work, which used a chamber-sized orchestra with keyboard rather than organ.

   It was a time to actually close one's eyes and drink in Durufle’s transcendental music, which Cassidy led with great sensitivity and precision.

   Highlights included:

   In “Domine Jesu Christe,” the fanfare-like “Libera eas de ore leonis” (“deliver them from the lion’s mouth”) and dark, contrasting, “Hostias et preces tibi” (“sacrifices and prayers to you”) for men’s voices and low winds.

   The “Sanctus,” where the composers pulls out all the stops in a magnificent, fortissimo “Hosanna.”

   The heavenly “Pie Jesu,” earnest and serious with the women’s voices and solo accompaniment by principal cellist Katrina Aguiar.

   The gentle “Agnus Dei,” where the choir drew out the final "m" on “sempiternam” (“everlasting”).

   “Lux aeterna,” simply beautiful throughout, vocally and instrumentally.

   The cry of alarm on “Dies illa” in “Libera me.”

   The magical texture at the end of the closing “In paradisum,” with low-lying voices against high-lying instruments.

   Mention should be made of the fine quality of the KSO’s program book (now printed in color as well as black and white).  The notes for this concert, by associate conductor/program annotator Tom Consolo, were highly informative as well as engaging, with separate, illustrated entries on Hildegard of Bingen and Campo Santo in Pisa, Italy, where Liszt saw the fresco that inspired “Totentanz.”

   Next up for the KSO is “Musical Maledictions” January 9 at Highlands High School, January 10 at Notre Dame Academy.  The “misfortuneately” themed program comprises Cesar Franck’s “Accursed Huntsman,” the Chaconne from John Coriginliano’s score for the film “The Red Violin” with KSO concertmistress Manami White and Tchakovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”). 

   Tickets are $28 and $23, $18 for seniors, $10 for students, at (895) 431-6216 or online at www.kyso.org