From the Courts of Europe…a review.
It is the good fortune of those who live in the Santa Ynez Valley area that the town of Solvang is of Danish descent, for the 2012 tour of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir was otherwise designed only for large venues in five major American cities. This special performance last Tuesday evening was not to be missed.
The unique sound of a choir is not to be found in rehearsal alone but is largely determined by the original selection of voices. In this case it was a masterful job. The blend, the deliciously straight tone of each voice part, the dynamic range, but especially the overall quality of sound were ethereal.
The boys wore blue sailor tunic tops for the performance, the men tuxedoes.
The venue was perfect for this choir of twenty-nine boys and eighteen men. It needed to be large - and it was. The high hardwood ceilings and deep transverse of the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church suited the performance admirably. The divided voices for the Palestrina Sicut Cervus/Sitivit anima mea and the Heinrich Schutz Motet for double choir and continuo Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen could be performed to great effect due to the size of the church.
The boys well deserved their nickname of 'the angels'. Not all pre-adolescent boy's voices are created equal and all of Denmark must have been combed to find such quality, followed after by much dedication, discipline, and work.
Eighteen professional adult male voices, ranging from bass to counter-tenor deepened and lent body to the sound of the boys. The careful selection of voices was once more in evidence when the men sang without the boys during a section of the Danish folk song suite.
Mr. Ebbe Munk's conducting was clear, strong, and articulate. He averted the conductor's worst fear in acapella music, that of beginning on a wrong pitch, by humming the starting pitches out loudly for the boys to hear.
The organist, Hanne Kuhlmann, was strong in technique, well versed in her stop selections and not overly flamboyant, except perhaps when she sent her music flying in the final measures of the organ solo Fugue sur le theme du Catillon des Heures de la Cathedral de Soissons, op. 12 by Maurice Durufle.
A harpist, Helen Davies Mikkelborg (related to Palle Mikkelborg, Northern Lights composer?) played primarily after the intermission and added texture without overpowering the treble voices.
The early selections, in terms of music history as well as their place in the program, demonstrated the assiduous attention to detail these works demand: sharp attacks, sharp cut-offs, abrupt dynamic changes, attention to rhythm, precise pitch. The successful voicing of the choir was strongly evident in the Palestrina double motet and by the Monteverdi echo choir. The Anton Bruckner Locus Iste was lush and beautifully yearning, the Liszt selections models of precision in resolved dissonance and the beauty of the melodic line.
After a ten minute intermission the boys re-appeared in traditional folk tunics for the folk suite Northern Lights and for the final number, a Palle Mikkelborg composition, Dear God, be Good to Me, originally created for the baptism of Prince Christian of Denmark.
If one doubted for a moment the quality of every single boy's voice in this choir that thought was dispelled during the encore pieces, when the choir left their place at the front of the church to come down into the aisles to sing, in effect ringing the audience with their sound. Thus were performed two national songs, America the Beautiful for the host country and a Danish national song. When it became evident that the audience was not about to leave, the choir sang its absolute final number, O Magnum Mysterium by Laurensen (a Danish American).
Not every attack was perfect. Some effects and thematic material in the suite tended to be repetitive and perhaps overly dramatic. And boys, regardless of talent and nationality, will be boys as could be seen in the occasional whisper, nudge, or quickly concealed smile. But never did they detract from the music or the moment. And really, isn't that how it should be?
