Concert review: Sparse turnout surprising for popular ensembles
BY RICHARD TODD, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
MAY 30, 2011
For its final concert of the regular season, the Cantata Singers and their conductor, Michael Zaugg, teamed up with the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra. Considering that both ensembles enjoy considerable followings and that their program consisted of music by Handel and Haydn, the sparse turnout was as surprising as it must have been disappointing for the organizers. A generous estimate might put the audience at about 200 souls.
Conductor Zaugg opened the program with Handel’s Concerto Grosso, op. 6, no. 1. The reading was more than competent, though the rhythms were more soft-cornered than what we normally hear nowadays.
Still, it was precise and musical and got the concert off to a running start.
The Cantata Singers joined the orchestra for a pleasing rendition of Haydn’s Missa Brevis in F. This work was written while the composer was still a choirboy and, though he reorchestrated it some years later, it gives a clear indication of his early emerging genius.
The choral singing was solid and the soprano duets, though not as forward as they might have been, worked well enough.
Another Handel concerto grosso followed, this one the fourth from the Opus 6 set. It was similar in execution to the first, though it seemed more spirited.
The evening’s major offering was Handel’s Dixit Dominus, an elaborate, difficult and rewarding setting of Psalm 100.
In general things went well. There were minor but persistent intonation problems in the choral singing and toward the end there was a hint of shrieking from the soprano section. Otherwise the performance was enjoyable.
The five soloists were adequate or better, though once again a more forward sound would have helped in some cases. The one major exception was mezzo-soprano Meagan Zantingh whose rendition of the aria Vigram potentiae was unequivocally beautiful. Expect to hear her name more and more in the future.
Conductor Zaugg did a wonderful job keeping chorus, soloists and orchestra focused and well together. In fact, the solidity of the sound and the musicality of the direction were among the performance’s principal rewards.
For one reason or another, there was no intermission. This had the advantage of making the evening short, but it would have been better to have a break before as imposing a work as Dixit Dominus. Still, the audience, small though it was, went home happy.
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