ArtsSF

BERKELEY, CA—Peter Phillips has been conductor of Britain’s Tallis Scholars chamber chorus so long, some of his 10 singers were not even born when he started. Amazingly, over these 47 years the Scholars have maintained their amazing prowess at renaissance music in concert and recordings as they returned to the First Congregational Church for the 19th time. Needless to say, the performance  was sold out with modern-day enthusiasts thronging for olden-day church music. Is anything ever new in renaissance music?…

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BERKELEY—To revive an excellent but forgotten oratorio by Antonin Dvorak, it took not the professional players, nor the downtown arts centers, but rather a thoroughly committed community orchestra and chorus to present “The Spectre’s Bride” of 1885. Dvorak’s prowess at high drama, compelling orchestration and choral writing as an integral component of story-telling was never more effective than in this evening-length Bohemian-Czech fairy tale about a damsel in distress bedeviled and abducted by a specter in the night. Coming in…

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Can a crisis evoke from us a one-shot pinnacle of creativity? In the case of two Austrian villagers exactly 200 years ago, the answer is an emphatic yes. It was in the small church of Oberndorf, Austria, near Salzburg, readying for the gala Christmas Eve service. The all-important pipe organ broke down, with no chance for repairs being done in time. To compensate for the crisis, the young priest Josef Mohr pulled out his poetic text now known as the…

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For an uplifting and unusual Christmas program, we go to Chanticleer. As usual. For a look at the roots of Christmas music around the world’s many centuries, it’s Chanticleer. As usual. And this chorus? Never as usual. The uplift of Chanticleer was quite literally visible when the crowd stood as one at the last notes, gave vent to its enthusiasm and demanded an encore, “Carol of the Bells.” Take a dozen professional male singers with admirable articulation who can do,…

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DANVILLE, CA—Thanks, Chanticleer. The chorus did us all a huge favor in their latest concert and restored my faith in humanity. I’ve heard this elite all-male chorus do many hundreds of selections over the years. Usually quite flawlessly. Paragons of perfection. One began to think they were robotic in their pursuit, with great pitch (lacking any accompaniment guidance), command of many languages, and a breadth of notes spanning almost four octaves. It’s as if every work were ready to record…

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Chanticleer took chances with its latest program of New-World sacred music in Latin and Spanish called “Saints Alive,” leaving local audiences alternately bewildered and inspired. Its collection of forgotten works from the 16th to the 18th century  is immensely valuable, introducing composers like Salazar, Aruajo, Flores, Sumaya and good old “Anonymous” to our own early-music world, which has been far more European-focused. Appropriately enough, the current sites for these concerts are local missions and churches, including Fremont’s Mission San Jose,…

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On the cusp of 2018, we are knocking on one of the amazing achievements by a pair of village nobodies 200 years ago. And it’s only thanks to them that we now have an unquestioned masterpiece circulating around the world—“Silent Night,” reigning as arguably the most treasured carol of them all. The message that the creators send us is that, however modest our means or skill or prowess, we can rise above our level to produce something incredible, even if…

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The Chanticleer singers went out of their normal orbit with their “Heart of a Soldier” program which opened here Sept. 16. Best known for their sacred and early music, this time the dazzling dozen turned toward the uniformed services—not dwelling on the tragedies of wartime and carnage so much as on human elements like separation and courage, plus some inevitable, timeless rallying cries. The program is far more a reflection than a recruitment poster, with some Scriptural texts embedded as well.

BERKELEY—In a choral program of psalms, a varied and engaging world premiere by the neoclassical composer John Harbison, 78, took center stage in the current round of concerts by the male chorus Chanticleer. Harbison is fascinating, an East Coast composer who has written in all the genres with eagerness and inventiveness. What has always struck me is the emotion of the individual with the Almighty in his sacred works, as here, is much more effective than the emotion between humans…

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