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Critics Corner Chorale, composer a perfect match
ST. PETERSBURG - Libby Larsen is a practical-minded composer, which probably explains why Whitman's America sounded so good in its performance by the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay on Saturday afternoon at First Presbyterian Church. Larsen's setting of an excerpt from Song of the Open Road, part of a proposed larger work on American themes, was commissioned for the chorus by Jay B. and Marsha Starkey, and the composer clearly tailored her music to the group's strengths. Under artistic director Richard Zielinski, the 150-voice ensemble has a big, lusty sound that worked beautifully in the simple, hymnlike contours of Larsen's piece. She is an expert setter of verse, turning Whitman's ornate language "You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!" into surprisingly singable text. The seven-minute work was like one of Verdi's patriotic choruses, with a Hollywood feel to the warm, streamlined harmonies. The other Larsen piece on the program, Seven Ghosts, was less successful, in large part because she and Zielinski interrupted it after the first movement to deliver a rambling discourse. This was an awkwardly staged presentation that was meant to engage the audience by having the composer talk about the ideas behind her work, but it only served to bring the performance to a crashing halt from which it never recovered. All the talking was unfortunate, because it undermined an interesting work in which seven of Larsen's heroes are covered in five movements for chorus, brass quintet, piano and percussion. On the surface, there was a civics-class earnestness to the material - poetry by Phillis Wheatley, a letter from Jenny Lind to Harriet Beecher Stowe, an inscription off a sculpture of Charles Lindbergh and so forth - but underneath and around the fine words the music pulsed and shimmered with unexpected touches. Sci-fi effects were sprinkled through the movement on astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. Echoes of Home Sweet Home paid tribute to Lind. A dissonant "choral jam session" portrayed Louis Armstrong. Larsen is not as conventional a composer as she sometimes seems to be. A highlight of the afternoon came from another Larsen - Lone Larsen, that is, founder and conductor of Voces Nordicae from Sweden. The 16-voice ensemble was outstanding in a set that included the Nordic gem Time Is Now/Danse ikke grate na by Lone Larsen and Lillebjorn Nilsen. Also on the program were Le Petit Choeur, young women who sang sweetly under the direction of Lynne Gackle; and the Master Chorale's premiere of Jason Burke's polished arrangement of It Is Well With My Soul. John Fleming can be reached at (727) 893-8716 or fleming@sptimes.com.
© 2007 • All Rights Reserved • St.
Petersburg Times
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