Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents These Ancient Words The Music of Heather Sorenson and Pepper Choplin in Review
Heather Sorenson and Pepper Choplin, composers/conductors
Distinguished Concerts Orchestra; Distinguished Concerts Singers
Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
May 28. 2024
Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) on May 28th presented a concert titled “These Ancient Words,” featuring two works- Our Father: A Journey Through the Lord’s Prayer, by Pepper Choplin, and These Ancient Words, by Heather Sorenson. Both works draw inspiration from the Bible for their texts. The Distinguished Concerts Singers for this performance were from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, California, Indiana, Canada, and “individual singers from around the globe.”
DCINY favorite Pepper Choplin (in his 11th appearance with DCINY) took the stage to conduct his cantata Our Father: A Journey Through the Lord’s Prayer. As Mr. Choplin stated in his program notes, he had spent countless hours setting the lines of the Lord’s Prayer and contemplating the power of its words. Our Father is a nine-movement “blockbuster” work.
This listener has had the opportunity to hear Mr. Choplin’s works on many occasions. His compositional style is characterized by unfailing optimism, beautiful soaring melodies, abundant climaxes, and avoidance of anything harmonically jarring beyond passing tones. His fans, and make no mistake, he has a huge fan base, seem to be the ones Mr. Choplin writes for. Any concerns that might arise from fusty critics about sounding formulaic are of no importance to him or to his fans. What he writes for his followers is like musical catnip. They simply can’t get enough and are always wanting more.
This is not this listener’s first hearing of Our Father. I reviewed the New York premiere of this work in 2015 (in the version that included narration between movements, on this occasion the non-narrated version was performed). It is always interesting to revisit a work after such a long interval, and I was curious how my reaction would compare to that of 2015. I was surprised that my opinions on what I heard tonight were so closely aligned with my thoughts about what I heard in 2015. The favorites remained unchanged – the big sound of the anthem-like Our Father in Heaven, the poignant and nostalgia-tinged Holy Be Thy Name, the driving energy of Let Your Kingdom Come where the sun breaks through the clouds of doubt, the beautiful, heartfelt Forgive Us, and the uneasy tension of sinister-like chant in Lead Us From Temptation.
Mr. Choplin is a dynamic presence at the podium. He radiates energy to the orchestra and chorus, and they reflect it back in kind. The audience felt that energy, and enthusiastically cheered at the end of each movement. Let’s take a moment to recognize two soloists from the huge chorus, Kesley Mathis, and Jack Branning. After the last notes of the final movement, Thine is the Kingdom, the audience gave Mr. Choplin, the orchestra and chorus a standing ovation. Kudos to the individual chorus directors who prepared their singers well.
After intermission, Heather Sorenson (in her 3rd DCINY appearance as a conductor) took the podium to conduct her six-movement These Ancient Words. Each movement is musical setting of a word inspired by Scripture passages. This work was commissioned by the family of David Glenn Thompson in the face of his dementia diagnosis, to commemorate his love of family and church choral music. Mr. Thompson was present this evening as a member of the Distinguished Concerts Singers. In her excellent program notes, Ms. Sorenson gives a detailed description of the setting of the six words (Light, Humility, Refuge, Rest, Worship, and Wisdom) and the source of the Bible verses used (John 1:1, Micah 6:6-8, Psalm 46, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 96, and Proverbs 4:1-13).
As I wrote about Ms. Sorenson in an earlier review, [she] has her own unique brand of tonal beauty. She has a gift for melody and making those melodies harmonically interesting. In addition to this, one has the definite impression that the music flows from her with a natural ease, as if it were inevitable.
As much as I would like to go into great detail about each movement, I am going to limit myself to my highlights. Humility had a poignant beauty that was striking. Refuge had a roiling energy that suddenly pulled back for a moment of reflection, only to suddenly burst back forth, finally seeking healing in a serene epilogue. Worship had a martial quality, punctuated with the rhythms of the snare drum, exhorting one to “shout from the rooftops” devotion to the Lord. Finally, the final movement Wisdom was the words of a loving father to his children, and the Scripture for this movement was specially chosen by the Thompson family. It was extremely moving – there were audience members fighting back tears.
Ms. Sorenson led the huge forces (there were more than 200 singers crowding the stage) with considerable skill and with greater confidence than in prior appearances. The orchestra and chorus were outstanding from start to finish, and for such large numbers, the chorus was razor-sharp with good diction and ensemble balance. Special mention goes to soloists Danielle Wojcik and Layke Jones, with a bonus “thumbs up” for Mr. Jones, who once again “brought the house down” as he did in last appearance with DCINY (as a soloist for Ms. Sorenson’s Requiem). After the last notes, the audience immediately leapt to their feet with an extended ovation, which was richly deserved. Congratulations to all!
