Access Atlanta > Arts > Our Reviews > Archives > 2006 > December > 07 > Entry
REVIEW: ‘Christmas with the ASO’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The air outside was uncommonly frigid, the stage was ringed with lighted wreaths, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer sweaters were the hot fashion statement Thursday in Symphony Hall for the annual “Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.”
A holiday pageant devoid of commercialism and (for the most part) its attendant kitsch, the show moved swiftly — by tradition, 80 non-stop minutes — and unfolded in four acts.
In music selected by ASO Chorus director Norman Mackenzie, each act hinted at a part of the Christmas story, from “prophesy and Advent” to “the stable” to “around the tree” to “Adoration.”
Perhaps owing to the cold weather or especially gnarly traffic, the stage seemed more packed than the auditorium. Fewer than a thousand people were on hand to hear the orchestra and 160 ASO choristers, plus the men of the Morehouse College Glee Club (directed by David Morrow) and the Gwinnett Young Singers (led by Lynn Urda).
Still, it was an often powerful performance, never bursting with raw excitement but cozy and plump with highlights.
Randall Thompson’s a capella “Alleluia” was soothing and beautiful almost to a fault; Michael Praetorius’ “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” was achingly lovely.
Bits from “The Nutcracker,” carols and spirituals arranged by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker, and stand-alone tunes by Berlioz, Rachmaninoff, Poulenc and Bach filled out the program.
The Gwinnett singers were at their best in the modal, medieval excerpts from Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols,” accompanied by harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson.
The pinnacle of the evening, as always, was “Betelehemu,” sung, danced and clapped by the Morehouse men. Its history is interesting. In the 1950s, Babatunde Olatunji and Wendell Whalum sang as students at Morehouse. Several years later, after Whalum became the glee club’s director and Olatunji found a calling as an African drummer based in New York, the two men collaborated on a carol, sung in the latter’s native Yoruba language of Nigeria.
Tribal drums, tambourines and a cow bell added an improvisatory element, augmenting the singing, which starts at a low hum and builds to a frenzy. A few solo voices rise from the group, and there’s an unexpectedly moving climax — a spectacle to hear and see.
An instant later came the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” which in comparison sounded, well, stiff and square.
Permalink | | Categories: Classical Music
