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ASO in Messiaen and Mozart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONCERT REVIEW
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Friday and Saturday in Symphony Hall. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org.
Creepy, loopy, ecstatic, luminous and, simply put, a joy to hear, Olivier Messiaen’s “Trois petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine” is the latest wonder from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
In recent months, the hometown band’s various activities, in Atlanta and on tour in New York, have not gone unnoticed by the national press or in the insular classical music world.
Where too many orchestras fear declining audience numbers and thus re-program the same familiar classics over and again, the ASO is helping establish a new set of classics. This means music by alert living composers and, in the case of Messiaen and his 1944 “Three Short Liturgies,” 20th century masters whose time has finally arrived.
In principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles, the ASO has one of the greatest living Messiaen interpreters. Thursday in Symphony Hall, he paced the three sections without rush or rhythm, as if the composer’s strange vocabulary was perfectly normal, where birdsongs twitter above stagnant pools of glorious, multicolored sound — and where these cross-wired sensory images are a form of heaven on earth.
The “Trois petites Liturgies” is music is of cosmic contemplation, but it’s also music of its own troubled times. Composed during the Nazi occupation of France, it freezes in music an element of mystical Catholic nationalism that disappeared elsewhere in Europe during the war. Runnicles’ timeless, out-of-body approach ideally captured Messiaen’s sense of “legendary times,” at once serene and wonderfully, well, loopy.
The women of the ASO chorus, pianist Peter Marshall, violinist Cecylia Arzewski and Mary Chun, playing the ondes Martinot, a primitive, errie sounding electronic instrument, all contributed to the total product. It helps,too, that the ASO has performed in recent years much of Messiaen’s orchestral music.
The only other music Thursday evening, Mozart’s “Great” C minor Mass, did not received as deluxe a presentation. The composer never managed to complete the work, for reasons unknown. (There’s a theory that he started many works to be sung by his so-so soprano wife, Constanze, but rarely finished them.) By Mozart’s standards, the mass feels a bit out of balance, where sublime, quasi-operatic arias (like “Et incarnatus est”) sit beside big, out of place choral numbers.
Runnicles and the ASO Chorus magnified that effect. Almost 200 voices strong, the choir tended to overpower the orchestra, as in the “Gratias” movement, which came across as a majestic a capella hymn. When this chorus is underprepared, a rarity, they’re not sloppy or sluggish, just too blunt, too loud. The orchestra, attempting to play with a lighter, classical-era touch, never stood a chance.
The four vocal soloists — soprano Jane Archibald, mezzo Katherine Rohrer, tenor William Burden and bass John Relyea — dispatched their parts with lovely voices and operatic verve. The women were making their ASO debuts Thursday evening, but all four have sung at the San Francisco Opera, where Runnicles is music director. Overall, it was another satisfying and stimulating night with the ASO.
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By SAS
March 24, 2006 10:11 AM | Link to this
Thank you for supporting our symphony with your lovely writing, Mr Ruhe. I am not a “fan” of the Messaien as you but have known the Mozart “GREAT” Mass since we sang it in college. You’re right. It’s not “perfect” Mozart, but I think the name “GREAT” is justified.