Revitalized city chorus marks 125th anniversary

Thursday, March 18, 1999

By Daniel Webster

INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC

The Mendelssohn Club celebrated its 125th anniversary Sunday with Verdi's Messa da Requiem, a curious choice for a celebration unless you know the history of the indomitable chorus.

Once contender for the city's top chorus, it fell on hard times in the 1980s, lost the majority of its singers, lost its collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and was almost history when conductor Alan Harler took the podium in 1988.

In the ensuing decade, Harler has restored the Mendelssohn Club's credibility, rebuilt its standards, and returned the chorus to a central place in the city's long singing tradition.

For this anniversary concert at the Academy of Music, the Requiem resonated with the chorus' return from the dead. Harler led a large orchestra with the chorus, and opened the program with A Fanfare for the Chorus by Jay Krush. The Fanfare, which used eight trumpets and full brass choirs from the orchestra, was far from the obvious whoop-de-doo for brass. Any fanfare that starts pianissimo probably knows where it's going.

Krush pointed his forces through dialogues and lines of growing color, all played while the chorus made its stately entrance to the risers behind the orchestra. The mood was expectant, and the growing tension helped the Fanfare fulfill its celebratory mission.

For the Requiem, Harler fronted his forces with soloists Bridgett Hooks, Marietta Simpson, Gregory Hopkins and Chester Patton, all substantial voices to balance the large choir. His approach was robust and focused on the singing more than the instrumental shaping. It was a reading that developed bold outlines.

The chorus created a strong opening effect with its hushed entrance and gradual building toward the dramatic music of the Sequence. Pitch sometimes spread during this performance, but the conductor kept a firm hand to return the chorus to home base and to integrate its singing, at the back of the stage, with that of the soloists, far down front.

The soloists added strongly felt and nicely turned phrasing in the early going. Mezzo-soprano Simpson demonstrated her almost tidal voice in singing that glowed with shadings and intensity.

Hooks fit her supple voice with Simpson's in the Recordare, and emerged with necessary strength in other sections.

Bass Patton took a while to get his voice to full force, but grew throughout the work.

Harler added drama by having offstage trumpets play from the balconies in the Tuba Mirum section. His orchestra moved through wide dynamic ranges to find the blend of hushed wonder and pure theater that is this work.

There will be no additional performances.