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Westminster Choir College Choral Festival Cools Summer Heat With Mozart and Britten

Nancy Plum

The Westminster Choir College Summer Sessions provide good insight into how choral musicians spend their summer vacations. Some come to Princeton for a week to brush up on their conducting or singing skills; some come to try their hands at something new. Each summer, one of these weeks is devoted to compiling a hopefully balanced choir to explore one or two choral masterpieces in depth, resulting in a public performance. This year, fifty or so singers came to the campus to spend an intense week rehearsing Mozart's immortal Requiem, along with the more unusual Cantata Misericordium of Benjamin Britten, conducted by Joseph Flummerfelt.

Saturday night's closing concert of the Westminster Choral Festival was held in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus, which provided a more intimate setting than a venue such as the Princeton University Chapel, but a larger venue would have accommodated the many people who wanted to attend the concert and who were turned away. As it was, the setting gave the impression of dropping by Dr. Flummerfelt's living room for an open rehearsal. The very crowded stage, with soloists inches from the audience, certainly diffused the lines between listener and performer.

It was hard to find dynamic variety from the very fine orchestra in a space this small, but Dr. Flummerfelt's approach to the Mozart Requiem was crisp and flowing. Bolstered by a core of Andrew Megill's professional Fuma Sacra, the chorus of visiting choral scholars was attentive and responsive to Dr. Flummerfelt's dynamic shadings and musical intentions. The vocal color was well blended and the opening and closing fugues of the Requiem were clean.

The four vocal soloists did not have to work hard to communicate the music to the audience. Soprano Laura Heimes was as clean and decisive as usual, and baritone Elem Eley was solid in providing a foundation to the solo quartet. Tenor Steven Brennfleck and mezzo-soprano Erika Dettra communicated well with their fellow soloists, and the quartet easily balanced in the space of Bristol Chapel.

Britten's Cantata Misericordium was commissioned in 1963 for the Centenary of the Red Cross, fittingly setting the parable of the Good Samaritan to music with Latin text. This piece is scored for string quartet, strings, piano and percussion, as well as chorus and soloists, and features typically Britten blocks of chordal vocal sound against moving and dissonant strings. With an encouraging explanation from Dr. Flummerfelt before the performance, the audience was receptive to the descriptive music, thanks to the clean playing of the orchestra (especially the dynamic piano work of Nancianne Parrella) and precise diction of the chorus, tenor Steven Brennfleck and baritone Timothy Wilds. Britten requires a leaner vocal sound than Mozart, with many vocal lines built on open fifths and octaves. Mr. Brennfleck in particular began with a very lean sound, and as his character changed to that of the Good Samaritan, he incorporated much richer color into his line. As the traveler awaiting aid, Mr. Wilds proved he could be vocally dramatic. The choir also was able to sing with a dry and uncompassionate sound when necessary, warming up especially in the men's sections for the closing chorus. This piece is certainly an interesting work that deserves more attention in the choral field, and no doubt providing the visiting scholars with a new musical experience.

The Westminster Choral Festival gives conductors from around the country a chance to work with a master conductor and present a public performance of music they might not be able to do in their hometowns. Given Dr. Flummerfelt's popularity in the Princeton community, hopefully future choral festivals will be able to accommodate all the audience members who wish to hear this great music.