It’s a special occasion when two of the Bay Area’s best ensembles join forces.
That's what happened at Thursday’s performance of “In Winter’s Glow,” when New Century Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Girls Chorus met to great effect.
The Dec. 11 Christmas concert at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley showed the groups in their best light, with only a couple of famous carols in the mix. Both groups gravitate toward unusual repertory and have signature sounds that envelop and energize the listener — and it turns out that they mix brilliantly.
The Girls Chorus’ top level group is a wonder. These are teenagers who sing like professionals, perform confidently and freely, project words clearly, radiate a love of music, and navigate difficult part-writing with ease. You will wait in vain for a tentative entrance, wavering pitch, any sign at all that these singers are, you know, kids.
Part of the credit goes to their SFGC training and Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, who has molded their sound expertly. But make no mistake, each of these girls has become a superior musician in her own right.
The Girls Chorus made a breathtaking entrance in a traditional Christmas concert procession, singing William Billings’s “Bethlehem” (“While shepherds watched their flocks by night”). It was like being part of the chorus. The group's balanced ensemble sound filled the church while listeners could hear the individual parts sung by the singers closest to them.
Then the girls took up Benjamin Britten’s “A Wealdon Trio” (a rarity based on a Ford Madox Ford poem in a regional Sussex dialect) and Ola Gjeilo’s beautiful “Northern Lights” with impeccable pitch and diction and without a conductor. Saint-Agathe was in the seats and didn’t need to do much.
The New Century Chamber Orchestra made the most of its full-bodied, well-balanced, and deeply penetrating sound in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor, RV 580. They also shone in Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, music that plays to their strengths. The 1892 work, written as a birthday present to Elgar’s wife, Alice, is unfailingly beautiful but also unassuming, melodically rich and, like a true serenade, meant to seduce. Fortunately, this orchestra possesses a true pianissimo, and the dynamic range of their performance was thrilling.
John Rutter’s Suite for Strings proved to be a delightful surprise. The 12-minute romp through four English folksongs, includes the still well-known “O, Waly Waly,” which featured sweet solos by Music Director and Concertmaster Daniel Hope.
The groups collaborated on two modern carols by Gordon Getty, to whom the orchestra has dedicated its season, in recognition of his consistent philanthropic support. Getty is at his best in these melodic gems, with their homey, traditional sentiments in lyrics written by the composer. The frenetic, outdoor scene of “Candles on the Tree” is tremendous fun when sung by a youth chorus. NCCO complemented the Girls Chorus wperfectly, thanks to the orchestra’s ability to play under the singers without sacrificing tone.
Jake Heggie’s collection of seven songs On the Road to Christmas, was written for NCCO early in the San Francisco composer’s career. Two chorus soloists sang marvelously in a setting of “I Wonder as I Wander” and Heggie’s original “Christmas Time of Year,” with swinging music and lyrics that wouldn't sound out of place on a Bing Crosby album. (NCCO, the Volti choir, and soloists Lisa Delan and Lester Lynch have recorded the full sets of Getty’s carols and Heggie’s songs on December Celebration, the Pentatone label, which Getty also supports.)
Another San Francisco composer, David Conte, was represented Thursday evening by his Two Winter Scenes, through-composed pieces with a warm, welcoming heart.
Even the encore was unusual: “Balulalow,” an English folksong with music by Peter Warlock, best known from its appearance on Sting’s Christmas album, If, on a Winter’s Night.
Offbeat repertory or not, this was a rare and wonderful concert highlighted by incredible musicianship.
