Combined Orchestra, Chorus Raise The Roof
By BARBARA ROSE SHULER
Monterey Herald Correspondent
Monterey Symphony Triumphs In Concert
May. 24, 2005 - The Monterey Symphony's season of subscription concerts concluded with perhaps the biggest sound to date made by a combined chorus and orchestra in the Sunset Center's new hall.
Sunday, the symphony's agile and adept music director Max Bragado led the ensemble through Christoph Willibald Gluck's hauntingly poignant "Overture to Iphigenie in Aulis," Anton Bruckner's choral masterwork "Te Deum" and Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 in D major, 107 "Reformation."
The program's three scores took listeners into markedly different musical realms, each one a satisfying journey, though thematically unconnected save for a minor Wagner thread.
Gluck's overture to his opera "Iphigenie in Aulis" is a lyric beauty, performed elegantly Sunday by the orchestra, that captures the drama of King Agamemnon's unfortunate desire to sacrifice his daughter to the gods to generate winds to propel his fleet to war with the Trojans.
The opera, written in Paris in 1774, was based on the original Greek Euripides play refashioned by French dramatist Jean Racine as "Iphigénie en Aulide." The overture, performed here with a Wagner-scored ending, stands alone as an expressive concert opener, guided with tender care and insight by Bragado.
The evolution of the symphony chorus under the direction of Leroy Kromm, who was hired two seasons ago, has been impressive. The chorus had shrunk in numbers to a few stalwarts by the time Kromm took over. In a community rich in choral ensembles, singers and choral directors, the symphony's choral signature definitely needed a big boost.
Kromm -- a jolly, avuncular man with a can-do spirit -- not only expanded and improved the local symphony chorus, but invited members of his San Jose Symphonic Choir to participate in Monterey Symphony choral performances. The result: a huge unified sound delivered by more than 100 choristers who enjoy making music with this man.
Kromm, also a superb bass-baritone, thrilled the symphony audience as a vocal soloist as well. Bruckner's "Te Deum" also featured soprano Nikki Li Hartliep, mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse and tenor Norman DuVol.
During the five sections of the work, the vocalists contribute solo contrast. Of the four, Kromm's rich, cultivated bass singing proved especially warm, clear and pleasing to the ear. Members of the quartet didn't quite achieve the balance in their singing that would have lifted their combined efforts to the ideal sound for this work, though their considerable professional skills were apparent throughout.
Bragado pulled out the full force of the chorus and orchestra for the "Te Deum," leaving patrons with no doubts that under his guidance the chorus will be a vibrant and strong element in the programming.
By all accounts, Bruckner led a troubled existence exacerbated by low self-esteem, humble origins, a penchant for romantic involvement with very young women, and veneration of Wagner that set him at odds with the Brahms crowd. He believed his highest musical accomplishment to be his "Te Deum," a Catholic hymn of thanksgiving.
As a showcase for the orchestra and the combined choruses, the Bruckner serves well. The opening "Te Deum Allegro" begins with a thunderously immense choral praising of the deity and revisits this intensity throughout the piece. It's about as titanic a choral thank-you as you will ever hear from the traditional canon of classics.
Likewise, Bragado and the orchestra left a superb impression in their refined and dynamic collaboration for Mendelssohn's "Reformation" symphony. The conductor elicited a beautiful liquid sound from musicians, including exceptional passages by the woodwinds and brass matched by impeccable unity in the strings.
