South Florida Classical Review

Patrick Dupre Quigley conducted Seraphic Fire in an Enlightenment Festival program Friday night in Coral Gables.

The second and final program of Seraphic Fire’s Enlightenment Festival was devoted to music of the Classical era and provided the choir’s finest concert of the season. 

With seven singers from the group’s UCLA artists program joining the ensemble, the enlarged choir was supported by an outstanding period-instrument orchestra Friday night at the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables. 

Artistic director Patrick Quigley’s enterprising bill of fare featured less familiar works of Haydn and Mozart, juxtaposed with two solo vocal scores by Marianna Martines (1744-1812). Martines’ life intersected with those two masters. She lived in the same Vienna house as the young Haydn, the poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio, and the famed opera composer Nicola Popora. Martines would, eventually, study harpsichord with Haydn and play keyboard duos with Mozart. 

Her music, which is undergoing a revival, proved a wonderful discovery.

Martines’ O, virgo cui saluten opened the evening,  displaying her gift for rich, graceful melody in the cantata’s  modern-day premiere. The purity and agility of Rebecca Myers’ soprano swept through the coloratura roulades in brilliant fashion. Quigley’s idiomatic leadership and the ensemble’s precision offered inspired support, especially the vibrant oboe obbligato. 

Martines’ dramatic scena Ah, Berenice, che fai (heard in its American premiere) finds the title heroine in emotional turmoil between her duty to marry and her true love for another. The works ends with a mad scene that Gluck or Bellini would have envied. Nola Richardson’s dark middle range traced the music’s classical gravity while her top notes gave full measure to Berenice’s troubled state. Quigley drew fiery playing from the strings, fully embellishing the work’s drama.

The rarely performed Missa Brevis in F Major, K. 192 is the work of the 18-year-old Mozart. Despite its compact five sections, the inspired score has all the hallmarks of the mature Mozart and is nothing short of a minor masterpiece. The theme that the composer would later utilize in the finale of the Symphony No. 41 appears as the main motif of the mass’ “Credo.” Even some of the string figurations in that symphonic movement are suggested in this vocal version. 

From the opening of the “Kyrie,” the choir was well balanced, their smooth and even vocal production. An outstanding solo quartet, placed across the center of the chorus, made stellar contributions to Mozart’s work. Chelsea Helms’ high soprano, Amanda Crider’s rich mezzo, James Reese’s dulcet lyric tenor and Edmund Milly’s firm bass made the solo interjections distinctive and memorable. 

The long arc of melody in the “Benedictus” was movingly delineated by the singers. Reese’s sweetness of tone and nobility of phrasing gave emphatic intensity to the dark but uplifting change of mood in the “Agnus Dei.” The seamless blending of students and Seraphic Fire stalwarts brought eloquent voice to the concluding ‘Dona nobis pacem.” Quigley led an impassioned performance, allowing the score’s beauty and thematic inspiration to soar.

Two movements from Haydn’s Symphony No. 63 in C Major provided a winning instrumental interlude. Quigley took a relaxed approach to the Allegro (first movement), allowing the music breadth and stylish authenticity without loss of vigor. The mellow sonority of the gut strings and the non-metallic tone of the winds were an utter delight. Haydn’s inventive variations on the principal theme of the Allegretto were given lively inflection by the flute, two oboes and bassoon.

The concert concluded with “Laudaute Dominum” from Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore (Solemn Vespers for the Confessor). In one of Mozart’s most glorious inspirations, Elisse Albian’s light soprano soared above the chorus, felicitously shaping the musical line. With choir and orchestra fully in sync, this gem was the perfect conclusion to a wonderful concert that displayed Seraphic Fire at its considerable best. There are two remaining performances of this exceptional program.

The concert was dedicated to the memory of Coral Gables philanthropist Mark Trowbridge, a board member and longtime patron of the organization.

Seraphic Fire repeats the program 7:30 p.m. Saturday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale and 4 p.m. Sunday at Miami Beach Community Church.  seraphicfire.org

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