Mozart and Franck: A musical meeting

By Jim Pegolotti
NEWS-TIMES MUSIC
CORRESPONDENT
2003-03-14

NEWTOWN — The Connecticut Master Chorale, in its fourth year and conducted by its founder Tina Johns Heidrich, presented a program of music by César Franck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Sunday at St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown. It was standing room only.

The largest part of the program was music by Franck (1822-1890), a composer who was a centerpiece of French Romantic music and a deeply religious man. He wrote the "Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross,” a work with Latin text, in 1859. The manuscript lay dormant until discovered in 1955 and, according to Heidrich, has been performed only once before in this country.

Soprano Louise Fauteux, tenor Gregory Mercer, and baritone Michael Cavalieri, joined the 55-voice Chorale and 22 instrumentalists to perform this work related to the essence of Good Friday.

Choral writing, according to some critics, was not one of Franck’s strengths. This reviewer would tend to agree after hearing this 40-minute work that comprised the first half of the concert. Outside of several energetic strains for chorus in the segments "Father, Forgive them” and "I thirst,” a certain monotony of lush romanticism suffused both the choral and orchestral writing.

Perhaps all the composer hoped to achieve was music to meditate by, but even for that the ear seeks musical inspiration. A few times, something quite unusual occurred in the orchestration, as in the segment "It is finished,” where underneath the celestial chords of a harp rolled a quietly ominous timpani.

The performance exhibited all of the Chorale’s well-known virtues, including exceptional blending of voices, a cappella singing to die for, and crisp attacks. It was Franck’s music that lacked memorability.

Heidrich also conducted Franck’s hymn masterpiece "Panis Angelicus” in an arrangement for female voices and orchestra. As heard from the back of the church, the orchestra often masked the beauty of the voices and the melodic line. A simple organ accompaniment would have been preferred.

Nothing can be said, however, to detract from the excellence of the performance of Mozart’s "Coronation Mass.” All was joyful, from the Chorale’s initial "Kyries” — thrust forth fortissimo to quickly disappear into pianissimo heaven — to the perfectly performed "Agnus Dei,” which featured mezzo soprano Megan Friar. The singers evoked the beliefs of the believers in the "Credo” and the ecstasy of exaltation in the "Gloria.” The beauty of Mozart’s orchestral texture also came through clearly in the chamber orchestra’s excellent performance.

Not to mislead her audience that Franck could not rise to composing magisterial music, Heidrich pulled out all the stops in the final six minutes of the concert with the French composer’s "Psalm 150,” written only two years before his death.

This beautiful Psalm urges that the Lord be praised with all possible musical instruments. With cymbal sounds abounding and an added massive organ presence provided by Joseph Jacovino, Jr., the vaulted ceiling of the church may still be echoing today from the thrilling sounds that the director drew from her chorus and orchestra.