Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Immortal Invisible: The Music of Pepper Choplin and Mary McDonald in Review
Jonathan Griffith, DCINY Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Miran Vaupotić, guest conductor; Dimitry Ishkanov, piano
Mary McDonald, DCINY Composer-in-Residence and piano
Pepper Choplin, composer/conductor
Distinguished Concerts Orchestra; Distinguished Concerts Singers International
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium, New York, NY
May 26, 2019
The Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Memorial Day weekend extravaganza continued on May 26, 2019, with a generous helping of inspirational patriotic and sacred choral music, preceded by a Beethoven piano concerto. After all, if you can’t be shamelessly inspirational on Memorial weekend, when can you? The concert raised an interesting question for me: What is the difference between patriotic fervor and religious fervor? Are they really almost the same?
The program began with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto “No. 2.” in B-Flat major (it was actually composed before “No 1.”), played by the Russian born fourteen-year-old Dmitry Ishkhanov. He took the stage looking a lot younger and smaller than fourteen, but his musical wisdom was tender and lyrical, very satisfyingly mature indeed. Conductor Miran Vaupotić drew scrupulously phrased playing from the reliably excellent DCINY Orchestra, attentive to every dissonance and resolution, as was the soloist. Mr. Ishkhanov played with beautiful line, enthusiasm, and some imaginative ideas tending toward the introspective, which I greatly appreciated. His tempi were brisk, as I imagine a young Beethoven would have dispatched them, yet never garbled. His physical involvement during the orchestral tutti, when he wasn’t playing, was a joy to watch.. And what a polyphonic player he revealed himself to be, particularly in the clearly voiced cadenza to the first movement. Soloist and orchestra gave the sense that they were really “talking” to each other. He highlighted the rhythmic high jinks in the third movement (trochaic vs. iambic) in the way that all the best players do. I look forward to hearing how all his immense talents develop. He favored the wildly enthusiastic audience with a solo encore: Gershwin’s Prelude No. 3, which though showy, lacked a bit of the jazzy “swing” so crucial to the style.
After a pause, about half of the twenty-four church choirs from across the country (and one from Canada) took the stage, with the orchestra, and Mary McDonald, the composer of the set, serving as pianist, while the co-founder of DCINY, Jonathan Griffith, conducted. Her selections were on the patriotic side, with a great deal of climactic fanfares and a tendency to be “grand,” with snare drum and cymbals providing military evocations. Even if there was a sameness to everything, Maestro Griffith managed to draw thrilling fortes from his choir, both in Ms. McDonald’s original works and her arrangements of traditional material. Some of the works were played attacca, which created the feeling of a mini-suite. For me, the standouts were America (O beautiful for spacious skies) and Let There Be Peace on Earth, which I learned was written in 1955 (I always thought it was earlier). What a fitting tribute to the men and women who are placed in harm’s way every day to protect our freedoms.
After intermission, Pepper Choplin conducted a large sampling of his accessible, extremely effective sacred music with the other half of the choirs, perhaps given extra fervor by the fact that they are, in fact, church choirs. If there was more variety in Mr. Choplin’s group, I attribute it to the huge and varied nature of worship topics. Seven soloists, drawn from the choir, all contributed their bits with confidence: Corinne Rhodes, Lorna K. Jones, Gail Beckman, Melissa Owens, Sara Clarkson, Vanessa Crinell, and Bruce Ewing. They won’t soon forget the feeling of singing solo in Carnegie Hall! Mr. Choplin also drew wonderful shadings from his choir, and the DCINY orchestra again proved their mettle. However, I found the two a cappella selections: Sweet Are the Prayers of a Friend, and Let All the People Say “Amen” to be the most exciting, for one could really hear the superb work of the choir.
