November 4, 2022
All Saints Episcopal Church
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
J.D. Burnett, director. Bruce Neswick, organ.
James MACMILLAN: Cantos Sagrados
Maurice DURUFLÉ: Requiem
Mark Gresham | 8 NOV 2022
Atlanta-based choral ensemble Kinnara, directed by J.D. Burnett, along with organist Bruce Neswick, performed three times this past weekend in different locations: at All Saints’ Episcopal Church on Friday and Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on Saturday (both in Atlanta) and again on Sunday at Athens First Methodist Church in Athens, Georgia.
The program for all three, entitled Unshackled, featured two sizable works: Cantos Sagrados (1989) by Scottish composer James MacMillan, and the Requeim of Maurice Duruflé. I attended the first iteration at All Saints.
The 22-minute Cantos Sagrados (“Sacred Songs”) sets secular poems by American-Argentine-Chilean novelist Ariel Dorfman (movements 1 and 3) and Ana Maria Mendoza (movement 2), followed by sacred texts. The title is intentionally misleading. The secular poems address the topic of political repression, while the addition of sacred texts on their heels attempts to conflate those with religious sentiment.
The vocal parts of MacMillan’s work are not atypical for that era in their attempt to express edgy and dark emotions involving injustice and death. Even so, the music sets the words in that manner but does not amplify or communicate the secular poems’ meaning in a better way than spoken. While the publisher (Boosey & Hawkes) claims the choral parts are “not very difficult for the singers,” I would contend that challenges abound involving intonation, balancing textures, and the problem mentioned above of simply communicating the poems in a way that holds the attention. I felt in no way enhanced passion about the poems’ themes in response to the music. Not even by the increasingly frenzied interjections by voices in the third movement, which musically attempts to depict an execution by firing squad.
The organ part, however, definitely requires an accomplished player, which we definitely had in Bruce Neswick, evident both in this work and the Duruflé Requiem that followed.
Duruflé was a perfectionist who published only a few compositions during his lifetime. His Requiem, op. 9, owns significant stature among larger choral works. Duruflé’s high quality of choral writing is further affirmed by the unaccompanied Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, op. 10.
The Requiem was the second half of Kinnarea’s program
The brief solos were well-handled, listed in the program as sung by baritone Michael Dauterman in the “Offertory” and “Libera me,” and mezzo-soprano Heather Witt, whose suitably rounded voice benefitted in presence by stepping up to the front of the choir for the “Pie Jesu.”
But whether with organ accompaniment or orchestra, this is principally a work that features the chorus. Unfortunately, that aspect of the Requiem felt somewhat uninspired in this instance. (The expressively square singing of the word “sanctus” in the eponymous fourth movement serves as one example of the general problem.)
On its website, Kinnara’s roster totals 24 singers, with seven of them coming in from out of state to perform. But also, a few singers in this concert were rumored to have replaced indisposed choristers. As to whether or how many, I have no confirmation, but both of these can have an impact on the final choral sound. Bringing together even professional singers for one week to rehearse differs in character from the longer ferment of rehearsal once a week for 10 to 13 weeks as a consistent choral body, whether professionals or skilled amateurs, when it comes at last to performance.
Kinnara has received unreserved adulation for past performances from some critics, but I only know of those accounts second-hand, as this was my first experience hearing the group live. I hope to hear Kinnara in concert again under different circumstances. A perusal of the roster of singers and recognizing some familiar names among them indicates they should have the vocal and musical chops to score some acclaim. It just didn’t quite ring the bell for me this time around. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Kinnara: kinnara.org
- J.D. Burnett: kinnara.org/jdburnett
- Bruce Neswick: concertartists.com/artists/bruce-neswick
Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. he began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.
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