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Lauridsen's work proves popular
May 23, 2000
Melinda Bargreen Seattle Times music critic
The audience was already on its feet, with a standing ovation for the Seattle Choral Company's first Seattle performance of Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna." But when Lauridsen himself stepped onto the stage to acknowledge the applause, a football-stadium roar arose in the sedate confines of the First Presbyterian Church.
You don't hear that kind of roar very often in performances of new music; it's a response that indicates the audience has been moved, impressed and delighted by what it just heard.
Seattle Choral Company director Fred Coleman has performed a lot of Lauridsen this season, and no wonder: "Lux Aeterna" is rapturously beautiful, in the composer's distinctly tonal style with honest, heartfelt and often complicated close-harmony choral writing. Composed for chorus and orchestra, "Lux Aeterna" is a five-part work based on Latin sacred texts about light; it has the feeling of both a requiem and a benediction.
The heart of the score is the lovely central movement, "O Nata Lux," which is a cappella. Coleman drew out the music with obvious affection and care; the singers performed it well, though it would be nice to hear a little more heft in the basses and a better blend in the sopranos.
The church is not an ideal showcase for chorus. Long, narrow and high-roofed, it seems to contain and stifle the sound at the front of the hall; in the back balcony, just where the sound should be best, it feels distant and indistinct.
Placed in front of the chorus, the orchestra (free-lancers and members of several top local orchestras) sometimes overbalanced the singers. The program opened with the Faure Requiem, one of the great choral standards, in a strong performance with two very successful soloists: the warm-voiced baritone Glenn Guhr, and soprano Monica B. Harris (who sang the "Pie Jesu" with ethereal clarity).
Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company