KALAMAZOO GAZETTE, Monday, March 04, 2002
By C.J. Giakanaris - SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
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An anniversary is an occasion to look both forward and backward at the life of any organization. But Sunday afternoon's silver anniversary concert of the Kalamazoo Singers placed special emphasis on the present through a finely honed performance of an engaging program.
Evident care had gone into the concert at the acoustically ideal Dalton Center Recital Hall on the campus of Western Michigan University.
Thomas Kasdorf, current director of the singers, shared the podium with the group's co-founder and first director, Mel Ivey, who returned for the event.
Losing no time, the singers launched into the most impressive portion of the concert, Morten Lauridsen's beautiful "Lux Aeterna," (1997), sung in Latin. The work calls for a chamber orchestra, here provided by 18 players from the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.
From its first notes, the work won over the audience with lush harmonies and clear melodies, all in the tonal idiom. Composer Lauridsen, longtime chairman of composition at the University of Southern California, provided brilliant choral and orchestral scoring throughout the piece built around a minimal requiem structure.
"Introitus," the opening of five sections, began pianissimo in the lower strings of the orchestra. The mood soon expanded with accurate entrances by the singers, leading to full exposition of the "rest eternal" theme. The same musical motif returned in the concluding "Agnus Dei, Lux Aeterna." For many, the fourth movement, "Veni, Sancte Spiritus," stood out. It soared with buoyant vitality, engaging warm sounds from the chorus and animated playing from the orchestra, lending hope despite a funereal subject.
Ending the first portion of the concert was a strong performance or Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Hundredth Psalm," a performance made special when the audience was invited to join in singing its closing doxology.
Following intermission, a past piano accompanist for the singers, Janlee Richter, joined the current accompanist, Helen Lukan, to play with spirit the charming two piano work "Scaramouche" by Darius Milhaud.
Maestro Ivey then conducted an enjoyable rendering of Johannes Brahms' "Neue Liebeslieder" (New Lovesong Waltzes), Op. 65, with the two pianists, Lukan and Richter, accompanying. Various singers from the group took brief solos, alternating with handsome choral sections to make up the 15 sections. Brahms' song cycles always exude charm, as was true here.
To close, Ivey led the singers in a warmly textured version of Leonard Bernstein's "Make Our Garden Grow" from his splendid musical "Candide."
Responding to the ardent applause of the surprisingly ample audience (given the snowy weather), the Kalamazoo Singers under Mel Ivey sang a stunning encore (in French), also by Lauridsen, a composer who converted many into fans at Sunday's marvelous and satisfying concert.
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