Sunday's concert in review (Standard-Times)

NBSO, singers launch season on wave of glorious music
by Laurie Robertson-Lorant, contributing writer

On Sunday, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra brought the Thanksgiving weekend to a glorious close with a performance of George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" (Part I and the "Hallelujah Chorus") and Franz Schubert's less well-known "Magnificat in C," a spirited celebration of the Annunciation written in 1815.

Both pieces featured singers from no less than six local choruses — Mastersingers by the Sea, Sine Nomine Choral Ensemble, The Greater New Bedford Choral Society, The Greater Tiverton Community Chorus, The Sippican Choral Society and The South Coast Community Chorale — and four brilliant young soloists: soprano Kristen Watson, alto Deborah Rentz-Moore, tenor Matthew Anderson and bass Andrew Garland, all of whom sang even the most demanding coloratura runs and trills beautifully.

One of the delights of solo singing is the ease with which a soloist can produce subtle variations of dynamics as well as variations of vocal tone and phrasing. Anderson delivered the opening recitative, "Comfort Ye" and the aria "Every valley shall be exalted" with exquisitely modulated vocal tones and perfect clarity of diction, and when he reached the aria's highest notes, he sounded like the angel Gabriel himself. I only wish Handel had written more arias for this outstanding tenor soloist.

The other three soloists sang their much larger allotment of recitatives and arias very beautifully, with alto Rentz-Moore executing the daring slide and ethereal trills demanded by the first aria very gracefully and soprano Watson reaching celestial heights with cloudlike softness and no shrillness. Bass Garland's warm, resonant voice effortlessly brought out the drama inherent in the aria "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Although at times it was difficult to understand all of the words sung by these three soloists, the words of soprano Watson's recitative "There were shepherds abiding in the field" were perfectly clear, as were the words of alto Rentz-Moore's "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened" and the alto portion of the aria "He shall feed his flock." The soprano portion of the same aria featured lovely bell-like trills.

Concertmaster Jesse Holstein played the trills Handel wrote for "Glory to God" with spirited sweetness, and the chorus made Handel's opera-inspired arias sound loving and reverent, not portentous. Flawless throughout the performance, the chorus triumphed in "For Unto Us A Child is Born," which was by far the most dramatic and exuberant aria in the entire oratorio. When they sang the word "Wonderful!" it sparkled, and when they sang "And the government shall be upon his shoulders" with proper attention to the dotted rhythm that made the ascending notes seem to be climbing a steep cliff, I couldn't help thinking how the Sisyphean nature of earthly governments (think "fiscal cliff") contrasts with the promised heavenly governance Handel celebrates in this hymn to the Christ Child.

Following a tradition said to date back to the first performance of the oratorio in London, when King George II suddenly rose to his feet as the opening bars of the "Hallelujah Chorus" were played, the audience in New Bedford's gorgeous St. Anthony's "cathedral" rose and remained standing for a sing-along performance of the familiar chorus. Dr. MacKenzie conducted facing the audience and clearly enjoying our enthusiasm for the piece. Although I couldn't tell how many other audience members were singing in addition to my friend and myself, I am sure Sunday's concertgoers were delighted and moved by the performance and very appreciative of St. Anthony's Church, which will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its dedication this week.

Fortunately, we don't need to wait a year to be thankful for the talent and hard work of the orchestra and chorus and the talent, hard work and inspired leadership of Music Director MacKenzie and Chorus Master Paul Cienniwa, who is also a master harpsichordist. Overall, this was a performance that made the almost too-familiar "Messiah" sound fresh and new, thanks to the superb musicianship of the conductor, the instrumentalists and the singers.

Final Post...for now

Dear NBSO Chorus members,

I want to thank you for a fantastic concert yesterday and, above all, for a really good experience from first rehearsal to finish. Many of you came to see me yesterday to thank me for helping to pull the concert together, and now it's time for me to thank you for all of your hard work.

It's also time for me to thank all of the chorus directors who collaborated with me and the NBSO to make this such a special event. This could not have been done without your support, and I am particularly grateful for your collaborative spirit.

I want to specifically thank Gisele Pappas and Thom Sargent, without whom we would not have had the robust participation of the Spirit of St. Anthony's members. 

And I also want to specifically thank our accompanist, Terry Wolkowicz. In addition to coming in at the last minute, she revealed herself as an exceptional accompanist--much more than I ever could have hoped for.

Personally, while I always appreciate giving younger singers their first Messiah, I was particularly moved to learn that, for so many of the older singers, this was their first Messiah as well. For you new-to-Messiah people: let this be the first of many more Messiahs to come!

I also want to thank the NBSO for making this entire opportunity possible. We are so lucky to have this orchestra, its director, and its great leadership in our community. If you agree, then I encourage you to pay back your gratitude by attending at least one of their concerts this season. An organization like the NBSO can not exist without patrons and donors. This means you! 

Finally, I've long observed that members of volunteer choruses rarely attend the concerts of other choruses. Now that you all know each other a bit better, I encourage you to be supportive of each other. One easy go-to place for concert information is the NBSO's Classical South Coast site. Click here.

I'm sure there's much more to be said, but let me just leave this with a final thank you to you all.

With best wishes for Christmas and the holiday season,

-Paul

Tickets

Still hoping to buy the discounted tickets? Thom Sargent will have tickets for sale at the Saturday evening rehearsal (but not on Saturday afternoon).

Final details, including final word on women's dress

It has been a real pleasure to work with all of you. And I'll continue working through the concert as I chug away on the harpsichord. I'm looking forward to it!

I'm sorry for the confusion on women's dress. As originally posted, women's dress is white top and black pants or black full-length skirt. The only change is that the optional purple scarves will not be worn.

Saturday's call time is a little later than originally posted. The firm call is now 3:30. Enter Global Learning Public Charter School through the Nye Street entrance, the only one that will be open. Rehearsal is in the gymnasium.



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When you arrive, please go directly to your seat quietly, as the orchestra will be rehearsing till 3:40. Warmup will begin promptly at 3:40.

Dinner will be served in the parish hall at St. Anthony's shortly after rehearsal ends at 5pm.  The call to be in the sanctuary following dinner is a prompt 6:30pm.

Sunday's call time is 1:30 in the parish hall. (Clarification or even correction to that detail will be made on Saturday.)

The concert order is Schubert then Handel, so please organize your music before Saturday.

That should do it! See you then...and Happy Thanksgiving!

This Sunday is the last rehearsal with me as director. On Sunday, we'll be joined by members of Mastersingers by the Sea and Sine Nomine choral ensemble.

Some photos were taken at yesterday's rehearsal at the Congregational Church of South Dartmouth. Click here to view them.

Here are a few details for Sunday:

• rehearsal will be from 6-8:30 at Friends Academy (Mastersingers/Sine members look for the map links to the right)
• You all have a bit of homework to do before Sunday. And if you're not with us on Sunday, you still need to do some homework. David MacKenzie attended last night's rehearsal and left us some notes. They look extensive, but, in truth, there's not that much to mark into your parts. Nevertheless, please do so before Sunday. Click here to see David's comments. (If you have trouble accessing this document via this link, be sure to email me before Sunday.)
• As the final rehearsal with me, we will cover all of David's comments and then go through all of Messiah and all of the Magnificat. And as our final rehearsal, I ask that you be particularly attentive to all of the details we've been working on for the past five rehearsals while also incorporating David's comments. You know what you need to do! Don't force us to stop over and over again to correct things you already know.
• A comment for Mastersingers/Sine Nomine people: please do not sit together. I ask that you sit among people you do not know. This will help you learn from those around you while helping those around you with what you know!

And, finally, there were some questions about concert week. Here are the details:

• Saturday, November 24, 2:30-5pm rehearsal at Global Learning Charter School. This is the school building behind St. Anthony's (map linked to the right).
• dinner will be served between rehearsals
• Saturday, November 24, 7-9:30pm dress rehearsal in the church with orchestra
• And not that anyone's asked, but all November 24 calls are mandatory.
• Concert call on Sunday, November 25 is 1:30 in the school. The concert is at 3pm.
• Concert dress is listed here.
• Ticket information is here.

It's almost showtime! Keep up the pace. This chorus is sounding great!

Agenda for Wednesday, November 14

First, a few business items.

Due to some conflicts with Friends Academy, this Wednesday's rehearsal will be held at the Congregational Church of South Darmouth, 17 Middle Street. Rehearsal is from 7-9:30pm. Please don't expect to enter the church earlier than 6:45pm; the doors should be open at 6:45. We'll be rehearsing on the main floor of the church, seated as we usually are.



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Soprano Susan Leclair has written, 
"It has been arranged that singers who want to check out the church can do so next Sunday -November 18 at 3:30.  As you know, the church faces Acushnet Avenue but there is a side doorway on Nye Street. They can park in the school parking lot and enter by that closest doorway. 

"We can stay for about 30 minutes or so. The lights wont't be on but they can get a sense of space volume and architecture."

If you'd like to be a part of that tour, please let me know this Wednesday or email Susan directly: sleclair@umassd.edu

After a really excellent rehearsal yesterday, here's the plan for Wednesday:

7-7:20 warmup

Everything is really coming together. It's time to start reviewing all of the movements from top to bottom.

In the course of the rehearsal, we'll make our way through all of the Messiah movements in order of appearance, stopping to tweak things as needed. (As you know me, we'll stop many times!)

If time remains, we'll move on to Schubert.

You know what to do: follow what's in the score. Basses, keep woodshedding the melismas in For Unto Us and, especially, And He Shall Purify. For all of you, make sure that you aren't following old habits and that you're sticking with what's on the page.

I'm looking forward to another great rehearsal. I've lengthened the warmup to give us a little more time on singing without piano. This group makes great strides when singing unaccompanied!

See you then!

Agenda for 11/11

Yup, that's right. The concert is soon approaching!

A few business items to begin. First a reminder about concert dress:

• Men: tux or black suit with white shirt & black bow tie

• Women: white top, black pants or black full-length skirt. Because we're singing on Advent I, women are encouraged to accessorize (e.g., scarves) with purple.
• and for everyone: a BLACK binder for music

Second, all new errors will be posted by date for all voice types. This will keep you from having to go back to see what you've already marked. Please look at the link to the right to see new markings from this rehearsal.

Third, you may not know that our accompanist, the fantastic Terry Wolkowicz, regularly produces educational videos about upcoming NBSO concerts. This is her video for Messiah:



This video was created for the Symphony's Family Musical Connections. Click here to find out more about that program.

And now on to Sunday's rehearsal. We had a good rehearsal yesterday, but it exposed a lot of weakness in the bass section's melismas. But the weaknesses aren't just there. I'm afraid I had to keep stopping and starting again and again because so many aren't "remembering" what's already written in the score. Please be ready to focus at the next rehearsal!

Here's the plan:
6-6:15 warmup
15-30 review O thou that tellest: watch those articulations!
30-7:20 Magnificat (both movements)
20-30 BREAK
7:30-50 And he shall purify

• basses, will you promise to know your notes?
• altos, A natural (please!) in m.16
• and to the rest of you: don't forget what we did on Wednesday
• watch those articulations
• sing full note values
• sing with dynamics

50-8:05 Hallelujah

• oddly, this chorus has some serious gaps, namely in the fugue sections; we'll take those apart, just as we did last Sunday (see last week's agenda)

5-8:30 For Unto Us

• This was much better this week, but there are still a few issues.
• sing full note values 
• melisma accuracy
• dynamics

Errata from 11/7 rehearsal

Soprano

• And he shall purify
• m. 25, "and" should be staccato

Melisma/Melismatic

A question has come up about the meaning of "melismatic." You may not know what the word means, but you certainly know what it is!

A melisma is a series of notes set to one syllable. A great example is my joke about the "born melisma." (You know, the joke about that Matt Damon movies. (Well, I guess it's even less funny now that I'm putting it into print...))

In the chorus "Unto Us a Child is Born," there are many running notes on the word "born." That's a melisma.

In Gregorian chant, there are two main types of chant: syllabic and melismatic. (There's also neumatic chant, and that's somewhere between syllabic and melismatic.)

A syllabic chant has--you guessed it--one syllable per note:


A melismatic chant is very florid with multiple notes per syllable:


Which movements of Messiah are the most melismatic?

Information on purchasing tickets

From the NBSO office (Conee Souza):

Please note that Thom Sargent will continue to have tickets available for musicians and choral members at rehearsals for the November concert.  They are priced at $25 per adult and $10 per student.  (children and adults with student IDs)

$5 of each ticket sale goes back to St. Anthony’s Church.

Regular ticket prices are $30 per adult and $10 per student, so this is a discounted rate.

NBSO Musicians are entitled to a 50% discount on adult tickets for all of our concerts, but they must be purchased through the Z box office.  The box office fees are as follows:

$4 processing fee for all orders

Plus $3.50 per ticket convenience fee if ordered by phone or online.

So after adding these fees to the musician discount, the $25 ticket price offered through Thom isn’t far off and is much more convenient.  Of course they may choose either option.

Last season, we offered $24 tickets to choral members, so again, the $25 ticket (which includes the $5 donation to the church) seems fair.    

Please let me know if you have any questions.  And please encourage all musicians and choral  members to sell the concert to all of their friends and family!  There is no limit to the number of discounted tickets they may purchase.

Thank you!

Conee

Conee Sousa

Marketing Coordinator

New Bedford Symphony Orchestra

P.O. Box 2053, New Bedford, MA  02741

Tel:  508.999.6276   ext. 23

Fax:  508.999.0958

Email:  csousa@nbsymphony.org

www.nbsymphony.org

Agenda for Wednesday, Nov. 7

Before posting the agenda, I'm writing a few notes on last night's rehearsal.

• Paying for scores: If you haven't paid yet, let's make Wednesday the night you pay the $5 for your score and be done with it! Checks or cash are accepted.
• We uncovered a number of errors last night, and I've updated the errata pages for all voice types. Please see the links to the right =======>>>>>
• The bass errata page includes the pitches for the trill in the Hallelujah chorus.
• All errata pages include the text correction for the Magnificat (beatam).

We did quite a bit of work on the big melismatic movements: For Unto Us & And He Shall Purify. Try to remember how I worked those sections (basses especially), and incorporate that approach into your own practice.

It's quite clear at this point that everything is going pretty well. But pretty well isn't good enough! There's much more work to do, and, once again, I'll state that if everyone is attentive to the score markings, we can save a lot of time in starting/stopping in rehearsal.

Regarding attentiveness (see my post from last week), I don't have the sense that many of you are writing in your scores during rehearsal. As I wrote last week, professionals do this all the time, and they, therefore, rarely make the same mistakes twice. Amateurs tend to not write in the their scores--and they make the same mistakes over and over again. Don't let that be us! Be professional: take the responsibility of marking up your score during rehearsal so that you can participate fully and in the best way.

Musical thought for the day:

When asked why every child should play violin since there isn't enough room in the world's orchestras for so many violinists and violinist careers, Dr. Suzuki (founder of the Suzuki method) replied that it's not about creating soloists or great violinists. It's about creating good citizens. 

AGENDA for Wednesday, November 7

Reminder: rehearsal runs from 7-9:30

7-7:15 warmup

15-35 Magnificat I

• we did good work on the inner sections, and we'll start there with a review (letter A)
• the outer sections felt weak, so we'll look at those and then run the entire movement

35-55 Magnificat III

• just like the first movement, we now need some work on the outer sections
• we'll begin with letter A and C, then look at the outer parts, then run the entire movement

55-8:15 Glory to God

• we'll work the fugal sections (B, D)
• before running the entire movement, be sure that GLory is pronounced before the beat

15-25 BREAK

25-50 And He Shall Purify

• the melismas still need work here as does the entire movement
• don't forget your dynamics and articulations on the main motif

50-9:15 For Unto Us

• we did such good work with the melismas on Sunday; we'll review those and then work on the entire movement

15-9:30 Hallelujah

• yesterday, we looked at the more difficult parts of the movement; we'll review our work from Sunday and then sing the entire movement to end the rehearsal