:Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, December 7, 1971
Page T w oT H E IC H G A N AIL Tu sday De e m be 7, 197
rU' Chamber Choir:
By DONALD SOSIN
The University C h a rn b e r
Choir, under the, direction of
T h o m a s Hilbish, performed
works by Ligeti, Henze and
Bach Sunday night in the.Pow-
er Center. The program began
with two American hymn
tunes, by Daniel Read ' and
Supply Belcher. It was imme-
diately apparent that the hall
was beautifully suited for the
group. Singing in front of. the
proscenium with a. screen be-
hind them, the choir had a more.
lucid sound that I have heard
from it before. Previous con-
certs have been in Hill Audi-
torium, which is very live and
has worked. against clear pro-
jection; but I think the group
has improved in blend since last'
\year as Well. The simple hymns
illustrated this nicely.,
Gyorgi Ligeti's "Lux Aeter-
na" followed. Composed in the
mid-60's it . was. used . in the
score of 2001, as the advertise-
ments for this concert made us
painfuully aware. Ligeti is con-
cerned with small clusters of
notes, moving from voice to
voice, through the alto and so-
prano to the male voices and
growing .in pitch span, then dy-
ing away to an incredible pia-
nissimo which. was barely de-
tectible. The effect was hyp-
notic and the performance
seemed well - controlled.
Henze's- "C.antata Della Fiaba
Estreme," completed in 1964,
utilizes a small chamber ensem-
ble, and . soprano soloist in
addition to the choir. Lesley
Manring was superb, ..as she-
sang the love poem by Elsa
Morante. 'If her Italian left
something to be desired, her
singing did; not, and one was
continually amazed at the ap-
parent ease with which she
soared in the highest registers
possible. Her voice has improv-
ed considerably since I first
heard her two years ago; a feel-
ing of tendernesspervad'ed her
performance, as it did the
choir's, and the instrumental
ensemble. Henze's style varies
between a quasi-tonal. sound
and more expressionistic, ideas,
with unity. through :.recurring
motives. There is' some redun-
dancy in 'his music but my in-
terest was sustained, and if the
score is not as great as the
poem, that is nothing new. More*
often than -,not, great' songs
have been written .-on weaker
texts, simply because the 'bet-
ter the verse, the more com-
plete..the poetry is in itself. But
the Henze was well-written and
.satisfying to the ear, enough
to ask of many a piece.
-Mach's music goes far beyond
that, of course, and the- "Missa
3revis in F" is a good example.
The characteristic driving rhy-
thm is so powerful that in-
strumentalists -tend to get car-
ried away, making Bach dif-
ficult to bring Bach off well.
Bach's music, furthermore, is
always so well thought out, that
one is invariably satisfied, even
when the themes are not that
strikiig. But when they are,
the music begins to soar, and
one doesn't know whether to
cry or laugh because of the
gloriousness of it. - This hap-
pened Sunday night. The mass
began with two choral sections,
and then solos by bass, soprano,
.and alto, ll Well sung,,although
.something went wrong in the so-
prano solo for a 'while. When
the alto finished, the choir be-
gan the last movement. The
fugue theme on "Cum Sancto
Spiritu".is so uplifting, and the
sound of the choir so refreshing
after three solos, that: the com-
bined effect was almost too
much to take. What a way to
end' a mass.
This program also offered the
chance to compare the sound of
a small choir doing Bach with
the 'rhammoth one we heard
two weeks ago when the "B
niinor' mass" was presented by
the University Choir under
Maynard Klein.. Purists would
insist that the large ensemble
is' ridiculous; I think that the
grandeur of the work does al-
low for a large group. It would
be- a mistake, though, to use
such' forces - to perform the
Missa Brevis; and quite frankly
the thirty-four members of the
Chamber Choir produced a
sound that was. in many places
too overwhelming, .particularly
the Kyrie.,The instrumental en-
semble, here consisted of only,
eleven instruments, and it
would have .been wise to cut
down the voices by perhaps a
third.
I had the opportunity to talk
with four members of the choir
about their trip to the Soviet
Union last spring. Under the
auspices of the State Depart-
ment" they spent seven weeks
touring and singing , in eleven
cities. Andrea 'Odle, ' Roger
Holtz; Kay Kaufman and Hugh
Gulledge talked about the re-
actions of the audiences.
SHOWCASE NO: 2
"They seemed very apprecia-
tive. They didn't like the
Schoenberg (Friede auf Erden)
so much, probably because it
was German, but they liked the
Ives Psalm 90 and the Bassett
Collect. The biggest response
came from the selections from
Porgy and Bess, and the spirit-
uals we did. And they went
crazy over Tony (Roberta)
Alexander. She was even asked
to sing in a local production."
Professor Hilbish also com-
mented that the Poulenc Mass
in d, composed in 1937, re-
ceived its first performances
in the USSR with the choir,
and he gave away most of his
copies to Russian choir direc-
tors. Audiences were warm aft-
er concerts, too.
. "At the end of our first con-
cert, the people came backstage
and asked for autographs.
Some gave us flowers. That was
the only time any contact was
allowed at a concert. From
then on, guards blocked the way
and every effort was made to
prevent our meeting. Russians
were not allowed into our ho-
tels, either. Some of us man-
aged to circumvent this by
walking home after concerts.
That was how I made most of
my contacts," said Kay.
"We did meet some students,
though. In Donetsk we were
shopping around and discover-
ed that a few kids had been
following us all around. They
wanted to practice their En-
glish on us. Elsewhere the stu-
dents we spoke to were very
friendly. They couldn't believe
that we had our own cars. There
are still very few cars on the
roads. The students were also
curious about out different dia-
lects, and about American lit-
erature. They asked J what we
Ann Arbor N.O.W.
Meeting
Gaye Crouch-soelker
Nat'l N.O.W. Board Member
Wed, Dec. 8, 8 PAM
UNITARIAN CHURCH
1917 Washtenow
To Rus
thought of Hemingway, and a
translator spoke about Dostoov-
sky and Harold Robbins in the
same breath, complementing
Robbins' 'realistic portrayal of
American life today.'
"Other conversations center-
ed around politics, focusing on
the Czech invasion, JFK's as-
sassination, racism in America
(there was a general fascination
with the black members of the
group), and how free we were
to travel where we wanted.
And music. They are crazy
about jazz, generally older jazz,
though, but they knew about
groups like Creedence Clearwat-
er, and of course the Stones
and the Beatles.
sia
with song
"One of the most exciting
films you'll see this year."
Detroit News
CLINT EAST WOOD
Although the accommoda-
tions in most places were fair-
ly good, the members played
"find the bug" and in at least
one hotel found listening de-
vices. "Embassy people we
talked to said they would not
talk openly in their apart-
ments, or if they did, first they
would turn on the dishwasher
or something. Usually they
went to a park."
Kay visited synagogues in
three cities, and Jewish ceme-
taries, where she met people
who expressed dissatisfaction
with their treatment because of
their religion. "Those I talked
to said that job opportunities
were limited for Jews, it was
harder to get into universities,
and any mention of Zionism
could be disastrous. A family I
became very close to wanted to
emigrate to Israel. The two men
applied for an exit visa and im-
mediately 'lost their jobs. They
were harrassed for six months,
received phone calls in the mid-
dle of the night, were promised
that they could go and then de-
layed. Finally, after much an-
guish, the family arrived in Is-
rael yesterday, Kay found out
by telegram. Kay has corres-
ponded with other friends, and
has sent packages. Not all of
them get through.
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TODAY AT I, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.
ARM Michigan Film Society presents an
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- TONIGHT
Franz Kafka's
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Welles' screenplay, direction, production with
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