Word: choraling
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Interspersed between the talks will be a scene from Wonderful Town, folk songs, a modern dance number, and several selections from the Freshman Chorus and the Choral Society...
Despite an historically inaccurate interpretation by Charles Munch, Bach's St. Matthew Passion received a generally good performance yesterday from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, five soloists, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Radcliffe Choral Society. In most places not up to the exacting standards set by Hermann Scherchen on Westminster records, Mr. Munch's rendition was marred seriously by his treatment of Bach as Verdi, and by the unfortunate deletion of many beautiful arias and chorales. He also cut parts of reciatatives, which are essential to the full meaning of the story of the Passion and of the work...
...most consistently good music-making of the performance was the singing provided by the Glee Club and the Choral Society. Their entrances were crisp, their diction clear (including every umlaut), and their pitch perfect. Their dramatic "Barabbam" at the turning point of the drama was frightening, although Mr. Munch spoiled part of its effect by having the organist hold the chord for ten seconds--perhaps the longest quarter note in history...
...great lesser-known works of choral literature is the Requiem of Gabriel Faure. Written near the end of the 19th Century, this hauntingly beautiful score stands apart, almost completely detached from the influences of the late Romantic era. It is a brooding, restless piece, characterized by tentative, unresolved progressions, chromatic exploration, repeated figures, and a limited but unusual harmonic scheme. Above all it illustrates Faure's extremely delicate feeling for both line and texture, his carefully balanced sense of structure and climax...
Last night's performance by the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra was a careful, finished production which lacked the sweep necessary for this work, but which made up for this by a nearly letter-perfect dependability. The chorus supplied its usual polished tone and disciplined ensemble. The main surprise came from the string section of the orchestra, which finally broke down, in the Agnus Dei, and sang, highlighting a performance which was unusual for its clarity and accuracy. In one superb but all too short phrase, the Orchestra demonstrated that it knows...