Cantabile Chorale

What a thrill the March concerts were! One of the Chorale's missions is to discover hidden and overlooked gems and present them to our audiences. Palestrina's Song of Songs is rarely performed. And I am sure that Rautavaara's Vigilia was new to everyone. But the chorus and soloists rose to the occasion, singing in Finnish and finding just the right colors to express the soul of that masterpiece, and it proved to be quite a hit. Bravo to the singers who worked their way through both of these difficult scores! Bravo as well to the audiences who took a chance on something unfamiliar! As a musician, I live for this sort of excitement.

As artistic director of Cantabile Chorale, I look forward to surprising and entrancing you again with Winds of Time on June 4 and 5. Our next program, again comprised of less familiar pieces, expands our forces to include brass, percussion, and piano.

Giovanni Gabrieli's Magnificat in 12 voices starts things off with a burst of glory. Arranged as if the trumpets and sopranos stood in the left balcony of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, the trombones and contraltos in the right balcony, and the rest of the singers in the middle, the three choirs deftly converse across the open spaces between them until all come together in the final Amen.

One of the two large-scale pieces on the program is Seven Ghosts by distinguished American composer Libby Larsen. The ghosts of the title are seven figures from America's past. The first movement sets a tribute to George Washington written by poet Phillis Wheatley, a freed slave, after she met the newly-appointed commander of the army that was to win independence for the nation. Next is a letter of appreciation from famed soprano Jenny Lind to Harriet Beecher Stowe for Uncle Tom's Cabin. And the other three movements are based on the words of Clyde Thombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, Charles Lindbergh, and Louis Armstrong. Larsen enlivens this piece with fun and imaginative effects and, like Copland, skillfully weaves the American musical vernacular into her music.

For the other big piece, we reprise a work that the Guild commissioned for its tenth anniversary, the Mass by East Bay composer William G. Ludtke. Newly commissioned works, even the best ones, all too often disappear in the dustbins of history never to be heard again after their premieres, but the premiere of this work sixteen years ago so excited everyone that the long-timers in this organization still remember it well. Rewarding a fine local composer with a repeat performance and also honoring the history of the chorus seems a fitting way for me to close my own fifth season with the Chorale.

Take a chance on Cantabile Chorale. It's a good bet for a concert well worth attending and a fascinating program superbly performed. I look forward to seeing you again in Palo Alto on June 4 or in Berkeley on June 5—and again and again. Elsewhere in this issue you will find an announcement of our plans for more wonderful concerts next season.