Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) presents “Seven Last Words” in Review
Catherine Sailer, Guest Conductor; Larry Bach, Guest Conductor
Lauren Lestage, soprano; Mark Winston, baritone; Zerek Dodson, piano; Joshua Tompkins, piano
Distinguished Concerts Singers International
Wu Tsai Theater-David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
March 26, 2023
A beautiful, sunny, mild late-March afternoon, and my first visit to the recently revamped David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. What could be better? Just a brief observation about the hall- it is indeed much more people-friendly in the lobby, and the auditorium seating makes one feel much more intimacy with the performers.
This DCINY concert featured music by a single composer, Michael John Trotta. The massed choirs were domestic this time, not international (California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York). A moderate-sized group was used in the Seven Last Words, then a much larger choir in the Te Deum and Gloria. Both conductors, Catherine Sailer (Seven Last Words) and Larry Bach (Te Deum and Gloria) achieved beautiful results in what must have been a short rehearsal period. An esteemed colleague informs me that Trotta’s music is much more popular with school groups (high school and college) than church choirs. I can understand the difficult logistics of one church choir rehearsal per week, versus a whole semester or even a whole year of preparation available in a school setting.
My principal reservation: the performances were better than the music itself. I shall try to explain. Trotta’s music doesn’t take long to “get” – there is an easy-to-take-in quality to it that reminds one as though there had been a “school” of Andrew Lloyd-Weber (thank goodness there isn’t). There is an over-reliance on 2-1, 7-6, and 9-8 suspensions, and lots of clichés. Even where he turned to an overtly imitative texture as in the Baroque pastiche of the Kyrie inserted into the Seven Last Words, it isn’t truly imitative, after the subject is introduced there isn’t any further fugal device. This also happened at the end of the Gloria (Cum Sancto Spiritu). All works were cyclic as well, a popular device but perhaps overused.
All three works were heard with piano accompaniment, and both pianists, Zerek Dodson and Joshua Tompkins, rendered with admirable stoicism parts that were not very pianistic. I don’t know if these were orchestral reductions, but perhaps the works would have gained from the orchestra, sounding less like Broadway cabaret extracts. (Apparently, DCINY’s labor issues with its pick-up orchestra continue, there was some protesting at the stage door.)
There were two soloists to note in the Seven Last Words, Lauren Lestage, soprano, and Mark Winston, baritone, both of whom projected beautifully with a lovely sound that is only present in the most youthful voices.
The Seven Last Words should more properly be called the Seven Last Phrases, and with Trotta’s penchant for text repetition, they became even longer. There were also numerous melismas that did nothing (for me) to heighten the expressivity of the words they were attached to: one egregious example will suffice- the soprano solo “Bee-ee-ee-hoh-old Your Son”. One of my favorite moments in Trotta’s Seven Last Words was the hushed sense of awe he brought to the It Is Finished moment. Aha! I thought, he really got that! Then he ruined it by loudly repeating it over and over. He might well have demanded more of his listeners and left us with a sense of unanswerable mystery.
When I think of Haydn’s wordless rendition of the same seven last words, for string quartet, well I suppose comparisons of that sort are not only odious but pointless. Catherine Sailer’s choir was staged in a traditional women on the left, men on the right formation; but when Larry Bach took the stage with the much larger group (after a brief pause), he had his men arrayed all across the back of the risers, with the women in front, and there was a noticeable difference to the sound.
The Te Deum and Gloria, each of whose texts have been set countless times, were well sung, but after one gets the “gist” of Trotta’s musical vocabulary, it seems that the music doesn’t “tell” us very much about the words it underlies—even when he changes to an up-tempo more energetic, motoric feel. Once one surrenders to it, however, then one can appreciate the devotion these singers and their conductors brought to it. One last observation, Mr. Trotta, after you say “Amen” (the end of the Gloria) please, please do not place any text after that word (such as another Gloria in excelsis Deo). Amen is final! I understand why he did it- to provide a more fitting sense of arrival/conclusion.
No matter, the beautiful afternoon still awaited outside, the concert (for DCINY) was not overly long, and I’m sure all the groups participating will go home with a deep sense of satisfaction, as they should.
