Second Night of May Festival Visits Eastern Europe
The second night of the 2011 Cincinnati May Festival visited Eastern Europe, with sacred works by Leoš Janáček, Antonin Dvořák and Igor Stravinsky. It was an extraordinary evening: Old Church Slavonic, Latin and the universal language of music, with Janáček’s “Glagolitic Mass” (1927), Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” (1930), and Dvořák’s Te Deum (1892).
May Festival music director James Conlon not only conducted stellar performances, but provided program notes live from the stage. To wit: “Glagolitic” refers to the script introduced by St. Cyril in the 9th century to give the Slavs a written language (Old Church Slavonic) and spread Christianity. A Slavic liturgy was created, though Latin ultimately prevailed (by papal decree). Janáček and Dvořák forged one link on the program, Czech nationalism. Likewise, the symphonic conception of Dvořák’s Te Deum provided a link to Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms,” a symphony where instruments and voices are treated as equals.
Janáček’s Mass has an unusual structure, beginning and ending with an orchestral Intrada and containing a lengthy solo for organ. Inner movements correspond to the elements of the Latin Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei). The Cincinnati Symphony provided a brawny Intrada, the brasses sounding like “Gabrieli on steroids” (Conlon), recalling Janáček’s contemporaneous Sinfonietta. Brewer produced a laser-bright sound in the Kyrie (Gospodi pomiluj). Dixon had a harder job in the Gloria (Slava) where he often had to sing over the chorus and orchestra.
The Credo (Věruju) was full of raw emotion, with its repeated interjections of věruju (“I believe”), sometimes echoed plangently by the woodwinds. Jacobs on the organ joined the CSO in an explosion of sound preceding Raspet že zany (“He was crucified for us”) creating a devastating impression. By contrast, the Sanctus (Svet) began softly, with the angelic sound of strings, flute, celeste and solo violin. The vocal quartet sounded the invocation (“Holy, holy, holy”) with huge brass accompaniment, to glorious effect. After a mysterious opening, Agnus Dei (Agneče Božij) swelled up warmly in the chorus. The only disappointment in the performance – as it always is when the organ at Music Hall is used -- was the organ itself, a stopgap electronic instrument installed during the 1970s when the hall’s vintage Hook and Hastings pipe organ was demolished. Jacobs gave it maximum impact, however, and deserves unreserved praise.
Stravinsky’s three-movement Symphony of Psalms with the CSO and May Festival Chorus offered no disappointment whatsoever. The Latin texts were enunciated cleanly and precisely by the voices. The CSO, joined by pianists Michael Chertock and Heather MacPhail, made a perfect neo-classic blend. The performance was extremely moving, from the sober Exaudi orationem meam (“Hear my prayer”) to the stark, fugal Expectans expectavi (“I waited patiently”) to the last soft, repeated Laudate of Psalm 150.
A late work composed for his visit to the America in 1892, Dvorak’s four-part Te Deum was the final work on the program. Conlon, who takes justifiable pride in having introduced it to the May Festival in 1993, led it with energy and enthusiasm. Soprano Kara Shay Thomson, bass Robinson and the 48-voice May Festival Youth Chorus joined the larger ensemble in a celebratory performance that opened with a barrage of timpani and a full-throated Te Deum laudamus. Robinson, backed by the CSO brasses, was magisterial in part two, Tu Rex gloriae. Conlon took the chorus down to a whisper on Per singulos dies (“Throughout each day”) in part three, giving the text a very human dimension. The final section, Dignare, Domine, was lyrical (Thomson), laudatory and downright tingling with joy.
The May Festival continues May 22 with the annual concert at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky featuring the Youth Chorus and the May Festival Chamber Choir; May 27 with the Mass in B-flat Major, H. XXII:10, Heiligmesse by Franz Joseph Haydn and Gustav Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied; and May 28 with “Elijah” by Felix Mendelssohn.
(first published at www.ConcertoNet.com)