A few minutes into Michael Tilson Thomas’s performance of the Missa Solemnis last night, I realized I was present at exactly the public commemoration I needed, after the week’s horrible news from Paris. Not that it was intended as such, of course. I mean that, for me at least, this presentation of Beethoven’s grand and sane humanity was the perfect response to the dispiriting discovery that we live in a time and place where writers and artists can be murdered for keeping alive the tradition of Rabelais, Molière, Diderot and Voltaire.
MTT drew a thrilling performance from the orchestra and singers. Everything fell into place: the magnificent moments were spectacular, and the moments of meditative quiet were absorbing.
James Darrah devised a staging in which the soloists and chorus sang to each other, and listened to each other. The words of the mass provide no narrative, but occasions for affirmations of grief and hope. The four fantastic soloists—Joélle Harvey (soprano), Tamara Mumford (mezzo-soprano), Brandon Jovanovich (tenor), Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone)—functioned as Everymen and Everywomen, passing between the orchestra and the chorus, signalling concern and consolation.
Sometimes the marching around got out of hand and become counterproductive, but there were simple encounters that were powerfully dramatic. The first was a moment in the Kyrie when the four soloists and a part of the chorus suddenly all clasped hands, as if at a demonstration. The extraordinary solo violin section in the Sanctus was given maximum effect, with Martin Chalifour playing alone on stage, and slowly joined by the soloists, who mostly looked on at his playing. At the end, the soloists walked among groups of boys from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, checking to see they were okay.
David Finn’s dramatic lighting design immediately signaled that this was not business as usual, and registered changes in mood throughout with ingenuity and taste. Finn Ross’s video was so bad I had to avert my gaze the whole evening. I don’t understand why moving images are needed at concerts, but if you’re going to show them, why not chose something worthwhile? We live in Hollywood; there’s all sorts of people around who are actually good at this stuff. Enough!
[Image: Lucille Clerc]
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