Choral Music Magazine

A few weeks after moving to New York City in February, as I made my rounds on interviews for the obligatory day job (something every singer dreads), I ducked into a church for temporary sanctuary from the cold. I had no idea that there was space just off Times Square for the 13th century modeled, French Gothic marvel, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin—this night, host Columbia University’s Miller Theatre Early Music concert series, featuring Vox Vocal Ensemble with conductor George Steel. Their venue, an Episcopal church built in 1868, was a fitting setting for music of the 19th Century—shrines and statues and stations galore! For this, Vox Vocal Ensemble’s second appearance on the Miller Theater lineup this year, the choir shared the program with the Manhattan Choral Ensemble (MCE) and the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble (GABE).

Vox Vocal Ensemble, alone, began the concert, and with guys, attempting the high C’s and polyphonic perfection of The Allegri. If you don’t know, stop reading, grab your wallet, go to your local music store, and ask the nerdiest looking staffer for the best recording in the store. For those familiar already, the Allegri could command a review all its own, but here’s the brief recap.

After a few seconds of typical top-of-the-concert adjustment, the Miserei locked into that all too familiar, succulent synchronous sound. The solo quartet, positioned in the rear of the church, sounded a little too excited, making them a bit sharp, but in a piece that often goes flat, high and live is better than low and dull. The adrenaline rush made for a dead-on high C, launched into the stratosphere by soprano Jody Pou. The second soli section was a tad shaky, but countertenor Robert Isaac kept the sound intense and energetically robust. I held my breath throughout the plainsong sections, worried about the men’s less than unified motions. By the “Quoniam”, the choir seemed fatigued. Better to get the Allegri out of the way though. I would have programmed Miserere after a few numbers to get the singers used to the new room sound and the audience warmed up and anticipating it. Nonetheless, Vox Vocal Ensemble was bold and opened fairly well with this masterpiece (this particular version created from several editions).

After a breather, they moved on a couple centuries to Mendelssohn’s Mein Gott, illustrating a clear connection between the lushness of the Italian Renaissance and the Italian Romantic eras. Diction and dynamics were drop-dead amazing.

Lotti and Pearsall pieces were paired next. Lotti’s Crucifixus, in my opinion, has one of the greatest ramp-ups of any piece and is certainly on of the most heart wrenching settings of this text in the whole repertoire. In eight parts, it is dulcetly dissonant and powerful with movement akin to the Allegri, hence it’s placement following the Misereri.

Few composers write such wonderful soaring parts as Pearsall, a madrigal mastermind whose eight-part Lady a Garland put an English spin on Lotti-like textures.

The Manhattan Choral Ensemble arrived with Wagnerian force. Vox Vocal Ensemble, especially the sopranos, led the charge with a Parsifal prelude, followed by a collaborative effort for Stabat Mater, adapted by Wagner from Palestrina. Tuning wavered a bit as they finished out the half, but there were excellent contrasting dynamics and expressions (many effects added by Wagner), keeping this triple-choir marathon running full of energy, with interplay that was fun to follow.

Following a much needed intermission, Vox Vocal Ensemble opened with two wonderful works by Peter Cornelius, Blaue Augen from Sechs Chorlieder and Liebe, dir ergeb’ich mich!. What can I say? The Germans, they’re damn good at harmonizing, running the chromatic gambit, allowing the voice to fulfill its potential, and also challenging choristers to put on constraints for some of the most intense moments you’ll experience in music… ah the Romantics. Cornelius—musical adventurer, revivalist, and tearjerker—was well served by Vox Vocal Ensemble. Let a choir of soloists sing out in such a space as the Church of St. Mary, that naturally blends sound, and you’ll hear them at their best.

The women alone sang marvelously on Johannes Eccard’s Ubers Gebirg’ Maria geht, arranged hundreds of years later by a composer of the same first name—Johannes Brahms. A full, rich sound these trebles produced. Tuning in the Brahms Ich aber, however, was less than stellar, but with so many antiphonal progressions, it was understandable.

A male quartet followed with Heinrich Isaas’s Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen—a sweet little early-Renaissance lament.

As was often the case throughout the evening, the first chord didn’t lock in for Hugo Wolf’s Resignation. (It’s a common choral hiccup, often dismissed, but actually quite important to the integrity of the piece and both the listener’s and singers’ mood. As with anything, the set up is crucial.) The composition was great! (I think Hugo Wolf would have led a great barbershop quartet.) His tightly-nit harmonies set the heart free upon final cadence after wringing every ounce of passion from the chords. Singers need to keep something special in the reserve tank for late, big-bloomers like this one, and Vox Vocal Ensemble indeed delivered, but not so much so that they couldn’t finish the audience off with some Bruckner.

Famed works of his like Locus Iste and Ave Maria pale in comparison to the sumptuous solemnity of his Mass in E Minor, one of a chain of double-choir works on the program, but this time with the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble. I almost watered up during the Kyrie, but I perked up for the Sanctus—a mighty, mighty ending to an amazing concert, topped off with an encore reprisal of the Pearsall for one last piercing of the heart, and this time no holds barred! The Vox Vocal Ensemble is for the New York choral scene what Romantic music is for heart and soul.

Jonathon Hampton is editor of Choral Music Magazine. A Chicago native and Cornell University graduate, Hampton sings professionally in New York City. For the past two years, he performed across the San Francisco Bay Area as an Alto, Tenor, and Bass. He was previously an writer for the Cornell Daily Sun. His passion for choral music comes from 18 years of experience singing both sacred and secular music.

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