Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents Vocal Colors in Review
Alexander L’Estrange, composer/conductor
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, soprano; Ges Ray, bass; Musicians from DCOrchestra; Distinguished Concerts Singers International
Matthew Melendez, conductor
John Muehlheisen, DCINY Composer-in-Residence
Tess Altiveros, soprano; Great Bend Chorale (WA)
The Newtown High School Wind Ensemble (CT), Kurt Eckhardt, director
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium, New York, NY
May 24, 2019
A diverse and entertaining program presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) entitled Vocal Colors took place in Carnegie Hall’s main auditorium on May 24, 2019, as most New Yorkers were clogging area roads in the annual Memorial Day getaway race. The truly international forces (a choir from Vietnam was among the participants) were well-prepared , and enthusiastic as ever .
The evening began with one of Alexander L’Estrange’s many large-scale cantatas, designed to bring music participation into the lives of children in as accessible a way as possible. This one, Zimbe! Come, sing the songs of Africa!, has been celebrating some of the folk materials of Africa for ten years now. Fourteen sections run the gamut of religion, play, lullaby, wedding, drinking, funeral, and protest songs. Mr. L’Estrange’s skill lies in providing simple unison melodic material for the younger voices, with more intricate harmonies supplied by older (sometimes professional) voices. Backed by a five-piece jazz ensemble, the music had great swing, and Mr. L’Estrange himself is a very kinetic conductor, with obvious great positive energy directed to his forces. Soprano Joanna Forbes L’Estrange (Mr. L’Estrange’s wife) provided some joyful solos.
After a brief pause, the Great Bend Chorale from Washington took the stage, along with a five-piece string group, piano, and the excellent soprano soloist Tess Altiveros to present two works, Andrey Stolyarov’s take on Out of the Depths, (De profundis, Psalm 130); and the world premiere of a DCINY commission, John Muelheisen’s politically relevant work Borders.
Mr. Stolyarov notes that his work arose out of an immense recent family tragedy, and indeed the mood was appropriately somber, with long pedal points from the double bass. The overall feeling was rather static, perhaps a representation of emotions frozen in shock. Although it is quite difficult to achieve, I never heard the final “s” on the word “depths” from either choir or soloist, leaving one to understand “out of the depth.”
The theme of how we treat strangers, never more crucial than at this moment, formed the arching unifier of Mr. Muehleisen’s extended cantata, Borders. “Politically relevant” music is always risky, but the choice of texts was so thoughtful in this case, with a huge cross-cultural span, that it showed the issue without being too didactic. The most effective moment, for me, was the revelation of letters from an Irish woman, starving in the potato famine of the mid-19th century, writing to her son, who presumably emigrated to the US. Here, the work of Ms. Altiveros was clear and very poignant. Two very small children, one boy and one girl, also made a significant brief utterance.
After intermission, the wind ensemble of Newtown High School from Connecticut played five varied selections, showing off their considerable skills. What a pleasure it was to associate the name Newtown, CT, with something other than the tragic school shooting of six and a half years ago. I wondered if perhaps everyone in this ensemble knew someone personally affected by it, yet, as D.H. Lawrence says: “We’ve got to go on, no matter how many skies have fallen.”
A work by Rossano Galante titled The Falls purported to be about water spilling over a ledge, but if the title had been “Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon,” it would have been equally apt—I simply wasn’t getting “water” out of it. The clever Arabesque, a three-section piece by Samuel R. Hazo was inhabited with strong rhythmic drive. The group created truly terrifying sounds, as intended, in Robert W. Smith’s Inferno section from his programmatic rendering of Dante’s Divine Comedy. They were also quite controlled in Eric Whitacre’s own arrangement of his “hit tune” (originally for a cappella choir) Lux Aurumque (Golden Light). I feared that the work might lose some of its “cosmic” quality without the voices, but was very happy to find that it did not. They were also excellent in Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy 1977 tribute to his colleague Mstislav Rostropovich, called Slava! (subtitle: A Political Overture). The shifting rhythms held absolutely no terrors for these talented students, a quality I sincerely hope will transfer to their ability to negotiate shifting politics as they mature.
