Seraphic Fire brings beneficent peace to wide-ranging season opener

By Lawrence Budmen

Patrick Dupre Quigley led Seraphic Fire in “A Brief History of Western Music” Thursday night in Miami.

Nothing less than nearly a thousand years of music formed the basis of “A Brief History of Western Music,” the opening program of Seraphic Fire’s 22nd season on Thursday night at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Miami.

The concert provided a calmative aura after days of anxiety over the potential devastation of Hurricane Milton. Luckily, Miami-Dade County was spared and the concert went on as planned.

Artistic director Patrick Quigley devised a concert that traced choral composition from Medieval times to the 21st century. With Thursday night’s outstanding performances, the chamber choir continues to top its personal best, consistently setting new standards.

The program was definitely a challenge for the singers, requiring many varieties of musical style and vocal technique. (In addition, hurricanes from Milton necessitated the cancellation of one rehearsal.)  

Opening with the 11th century plainchant Alma Redemptoris Mater, the purity of Rebecca Myers’ solo soprano introduced the spare vocal lines with the singers projecting the music’s aura of devout calm. These early vocal works often originated in the Catholic Church. The Prologue from abyss and mystic Hildegard von Bingen’s music drama Ordo Virtutum found the male chorus of Patriarchs and Prophets questioning the female Virtues in stern tones.The women’s voices soared ecstatically while a final men’s segment was calmer and more measured.  The astutely blended ensemble singing was wonderfully precise in intonation and unity.

The late 14th century Stella splendens by the renowned Anonymous was rhythmic and propulsive, almost a dance piece. In a major solo role, John Buffett’s bass resounded with richness and depth. The instrumental underpinning of organist Leon Schelhase and cellist Sarah Stone proved vibrant and vivacious, and the final choral refrain rang the rafters of the resonant sanctuary. 

As the 14th century commenced, the European Renaissance introduced greater complexity into musical creation, including counterpoint and multiple melodies. Nuper rosarum flores by Guillaume Dufay (1397-1454), written for the inauguration of a cathedral, illustrated these innovations as male and female voices intoned different melodic lines. Supple choral textures and fine corporate blending, superbly controlled by Quigley brought this burst of creative energy to vivid life. 

The large scale setting of Alma Redemptoris Mater by Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), far from the early plainchant iteration, found the choir spread around the church, with their superb sound enveloping listeners. In addition to the 13 Seraphic Fire members, Quigley deployed 11 student singers from the group’s University of Miami Frost School of Music Ensemble Artist Program to potent effect. Soprano Molly Quinn, alto Emily Marvosh, tenor Nickolas Karageorgiou and Buffett offered well-articulated solos.

Photo: Seraphic Fire

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) bridged the Renaissance and Baroque eras. The joyous and celebratory “Lauda Jerusalem” from the Vespers of 1610 demonstrated Monteverdi’s mastery as an opera composer, as displayed in the range and expressiveness of the choral writing; the music was channeled with subtlety and dynamic heft by Quigley and the singers. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Lobet den Hernn displayed the high Baroque period in full splendor. The lively chorus of praise contrasted silvery soprano sonorities with firm bass lines. 

Ave verum corpus by Mozart was as fine an example of the classical era as one could wish. Written in the Salzburg master’s final tragic year of 1791, the brief motet finds Mozart at his most serene and inspired. Cello and organ accompaniment beautifully integrated with the singers’ long-breathed lines and dynamic shading. 

Miserere mei, Deus by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) was seemingly a look backward, but the various editions of this miniature make its text and form questionable. Quigley utilized a 20th century version from Kings College, Cambridge. Whatever this cameo’s origins, it sings in reverent depths of meditative reflection. Tenor Brad Diamond has long been one of the choir’s most reliable artists and his virile tenor solos highlighted a contingent at the sanctuary’s rear, joined by Myers, soprano Elisse Albian, alto William Duffy and bass Edmund Milly making excellent contributions.

Laudate pueri by Mendelssohn flowed with the melodic felicity of some of the choruses in the composer’s oratorio Elijah. The female contingent reached incandescence in this beautiful romantic era gem. The music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is being rediscovered and revived. His music is consistently inventive and the choral tone poem Sea Drift is a striking work. Singing with vociferous enthusiasm to a thrilling climax, the choir turned on a dime as the coda turned tragic and softer and their their tone darker. Quigley clearly loves this score and brought out every contrast and nuance expertly.

Moving fully into the 20th century, Stravinsky’s Ave Maria is surprisingly conservative from the composer of Le Sacre du Printempts and Les Noces. Sung with restraint, this expertly crafted a cappella setting was a fine contrast to the drama and scale of the Coleridge-Taylor opus that preceded it. British composer Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) created a potpourri of styles from the previous centuries for her version of Alma Redemptoris Mater. Modernist, yet vibrant, McDowall’s exciting version pays tribute to a deep choral and sacred tradition in a thoroughly contemporary manner.

Quigley and the ensemble received a standing ovation for this impassioned conclusion of a unique program. He responded with an encore of O Magnum Mysterium by American composer Morton Lauridsen. Drawing ethereal textures from the group, Quigley did full justice to this late 20th century classic.

There are three remaining opportunities to hear this program, one of Seraphic Fire’s most intelligently conceived and superbly performed offerings.

Seraphic Fire repeats the program 8 p.m. Friday at Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale; and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. seraphicfire.org

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