After performing a concert of modern Baltic music in Midtown
Friday night, the Latvian Radio Choir made their way uptown to Alice Tully Hall
on Saturday, joining forces with the Sinfonietta Riga for a program dedicated
to the mystical Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt. Although deeply religious in
tone, Pärt’s music transcends any segmentation of creed or belief, eschewing
organized religion in order to give testament to a higher, humanistic
perspective. And despite the overall sonic stasis, the Estonian’s works are
incredibly difficult to perform, requiring a great amount of dedication and
patience from performers and audiences alike.
The fully stocked evening included the Berliner Messe, composed in 1990, shortly after the fall of the
Berlin Wall, and the Te Deum—both
lengthy works that achieve new levels of profundity in approaching traditional
texts of the Latin Mass. In many ways, the two compositions mirror each other
perfectly; the Berliner Messe’s quiet
consolation juxtaposed with the Te Deum’s
triumphant jubilation.
Conductor Tõnu Kaljuste took control of the groups,
contouring a great sense of the vocal lines while giving the strings the
precise direction they needed. The choir melted beautifully together during the
Veni Sancte Spiritus, traversing the
tricky alteration of consonance and dissonance found throughout all of Pärt’s scores.
The closing Agnus Dei was icy in its
initial lines—high sopranos invoking their chant over violin harmonics—with the
tenors and basses adding heft before both groups fell silent after the final
syllable.
The Te Deum was
constructed along similar lines, but explored more of the louder sonorities
capable of both the choir and strings. Great use was made of the solo voices
within the choir, with incredible pacing and balances set by Kaljuste.
Given the weight of both works in the first half, it would
have actually been preferable to end the concert there, leaving the audience
with a well-rounded presentation of two of the composer’s sacred works. The
second half, unfortunately, didn’t match in terms of intensity. Although well
performed, the Sinfonietta’s showcase, 1994’s Trisagion (Thrice Holy) failed to add any new ideas to the program,
as the work even began with a seemingly direct quotation of the five-note
figuration that ended the Te Deum.
Adam’s Lament, the
most recent work of the evening, gave a rich account of the composer Russian
Orthodox setting, and the choir gave a cinematic account of Adam’s struggle
with the misery and self-loathing felt after his expulsion from Eden. Pärt
made the orchestra’s contribution more egalitarian, with heavy,
Stravinsky-like dissonances mixing with col
legno rhythms and shrieking harmonics from the violins. Adopting a wide
range of vivid colors from all the performers, the piece sounded like a
soundtrack to a film yet to be conceived.
A large congratulation to Artistic Director Jane Moss for
daring to present such a program, and—given the quiet intensity felt throughout
the evening—one can’t help but to think that this concert was perhaps most
emblematic of the White Light Festival’s core mission.