CalBach’s Program of French “Impressions”

Last night the California Bach Society (CalBach) returned to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church with its Artistic Director Paul Flight for another French program. This season had begun with a program devoted to the French Baroque, but last night’s program covered the period from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 48, given the title Requiem but omitting much of the original Latin text, while concluding with “In Paradisum,” which is not part of the funeral Mass but is included in the burial service.

Fauré scored his texts for mixed choir with solos for both a soprano (Mara McMillan) and a baritone (Chung-Wai Soong). Fauré’s instrumentation involved the rich resources of winds, brass, and strings, along with a timpani for the “Libera me” movement. The score also included parts for harp and organ. Last night those resources were stripped down to one-to-a-part performances of violin (Harry Chomsky), first and second viola (Katherine Hagen and Wendy Clymer), first and second cellos (Robin Snyder and Wendy Clymer), and bass (Farley Pearce). The harp was performed by Constance Koo, and Yuko Tanaka was the organist. Pianist Nalini Ghuman accounted for the remainder of the instrumental parts, except for the two horn parts taken by Ross Gershenson and Suzanne Chasalow.

Those resources allowed for a more transparent setting for the chorus and solo vocalists. The result turned out to be engagingly effective, and Soong’s account of the “Libera me” movement came across as particularly moving with the more limited instrumental accompaniment. Ironically, this was my first encounter with this music in concert, rather than on recording; and the overall experience could not have been more absorbing.

The program began with Fauré’s Opus 11 “Cantique de Jean Racine.” Ironically, this was coupled with Opus 48 on my favorite recording of the Requiem, an early EMI digital album featuring conductor Michel Plasson. This made for another engaging “first contact” encounter with the Fauré catalog in a concert setting. The music was performed with accompaniment provided by both piano and organ. The remaining Fauré offering on the program was his Opus 35 “Madrigal,” a four-part song composed for either vocal quartet or choir with accompaniment by either piano or orchestra.

Readers may recall that I have accumulated two complete collections of the Fauré songs. Sadly, my encounters with this repertoire in performance have been disappointingly few. Even in last night’s choir version, I have been reminded of how much of the vocal repertoire I have been missing in concert performances.

The other composers on the program were Lili Boulanger and Henk Badings. The latter was Dutch but born in Java. However, his selection was a setting of three French poems by Théodore Botrel and given the title Trois Chansons Bretonnes. This was an engaging “first contact” experience. Nevertheless, what was more engaging was Lili Boulanger’s “Sous bois” (beneath the trees), a selection from her catalog that was sadly limited by her early death. Having written about her songs only a few weeks ago, I welcomed the opportunity to listen to her choral music and was decidedly not disappointed!

This program may have been a radical departure from both Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries, but Flight clearly went to a lot of work to prepare a repertoire that maintained attentive listening from beginning to end.