Note: In the interest of honest disclosure all reviews are presented without omission of any relevant material.

Choral Company's restraint fills church with sublime serenity

Monday, May 22, 2000
Phillippa Kiraly Special to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

If it weren't for Fred Coleman and his Seattle Choral Company, we might never get to hear many of the big choral works of past centuries. The Seattle Symphony does a couple a year, but the symphony's mission is orchestral, not choral.

It's our good fortune that Seattle Choral Company is an excellent choir. It proved so once again Saturday night when it gave the first Seattle performance of Morten Lauridsen's 1997 "Lux Aeterna," paired with Fauré's Requiem, at First Presbyterian Church.

The pairing was well-chosen. Fauré's 1888 work is distinguished by its gorgeous melody and harmony. Lauridsen's work, though clearly from a century later, is complementary, with the same attention to melody and harmony and with equally gorgeous results. Lauridsen accompanies it with a chamber orchestra of strings and winds, often used as punctuation, or a change of ideas, around unaccompanied singing.

To this listener, there was a suggestion of kinship with Copland (another great melodist) in the way Lauridsen uses the instruments, particularly the winds. The text of "Lux Aeterna," drawn from the Requiem Mass and other sacred Latin writings relating to light, carries a message of comfort and hope, as does the Fauré. Lauridsen does not use complicated rhythms or harmonic structure. His work sounds simple and straightforward, but then a Bach chorale sounds simply put together, too.

The center of the work, the a cappella "O Nata Lux" with its uncluttered lines, sounded sublimely serene as Seattle Choral Company sang it, performing with restraint and never louder than a peaceful soft. The singers and Coleman gave all of "Lux Aeterna" a committed, tender performance that suited the work admirably. Words were clear -- Just as well, because, although words and translations were in the program, the lights were turned down so that no one could follow along.

Their Fauré was equally well performed, with Monica B. Harris, soprano, and Glenn Guhr, baritone, excellent in the solo roles. Coleman used John Rutter's recent edition of the original, somewhat spare orchestration. Not having heard it before, I believed that this, with the prominent roles given to violas and cellos, sets off the singing better than the later expansive orchestration.

Lauridsen was present for the performance. It was a thrill to see everyone in that vast church -- audience, orchestra and singers -- standing to give prolonged applause to a living composer.

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