The Jackson Choral Society, the Mississippi College
Concert Chorale, and the Mississippi College Singers, with
members of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, in Swor
Auditorium, April 22, 2006.
The concert opened with John Rutter's Requiem for
chorus and orchestra, a lyrical and dynamic piece embodying some
of the composer's best work. Like Brahms' Requiem, this
one did not follow closely the traditional liturgical model,
using only the lovely Pie Jesu from the Dies Irae,
for example, and inserting Psalm 130 (Out of the Deep) as
the second section, and Psalm 23 (The Lord Is My Shepherd)
as the sixth. The combined choirs sang as one, lyrically
and powerfully, in concert with the orchestra, which consisted -
for the most part - of members of the MSO. The balance between
choir and orchestra was quite good - a credit to conductor James
Meaders - except that in the very softest choral passages the
orchestra seemed to have more "presence" than the choir. This
was almost certainly due to the traditional seating arrangement,
with orchestra at the front of the stage and the choir behind.
Ideally, the choir should be in front of the orchestra, or at
least side-by-side with it, and the whole ensemble should be out
in the room, rather than on a stage with its abundant
sound-absorbing drapery (to be fair, there was a portable shell
behind the choir to help get the sound out). In opera, where the
singing is paramount, there is an orchestra pit in front, but I
think that in this day and time the audience does need to see the
orchestra as much as possible, to be reminded that it is a "live"
component of the ensemble. Indeed, this program demonstrated
vividly why Jackson needs the MSO - without it, it would have
been very difficult to find enough musicians of the quality
needed to make this program possible.
The orchestra then played Samuel Barber's enduring Adagio
for Strings, which the composer had arranged as a choral
work - Agnus Dei - at one point, and it fit perfectly
in the emotional setting of the concert - a remembrance of the
events of September 11, 2001.
The program closed with Rene Clausen's compelling Memorial,
composed specifically to commemorate the September 11 tragedy. It
consisted of four parts, which were not musically separated,
although the transition from the first, September Morning,
to the second, The Attack, was more obvious than the
ones that followed, Prayers, and Petitions. In
the last section, the text O God, Shine Your Light On Us and
We Shall Be Saved (Psalm 80) was sung in English, Latin,
Hebrew, and Arabic, but had this not been in the program notes
I would have had no idea what was happening. Nevertheless, I
greatly enjoyed this work, and the evening as a whole. I thank
the choirs, the instrumentalists, and conductor James Meaders
for an emotionally uplifting evening.
-Glenn A. Gentry