South Florida Classical Review

Stephanie Childress conducted the New World Symphony Saturday night at the Arsht Center. Photo: Karolina Heller

For its first downtown Arsht Center program this season, the New World Symphony was joined by the Master Chorale of South Florida for two contrasting choral works Saturday night. The first significant score by one of England’s greatest composers and Mozart’s final musical testament made for a brisk hour-and-twenty minute program that made up in depth of content for its brevity. 

The Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress was firmly in charge on the podium. Childress was a former assistant to New World artistic director Stéphane Denève at the St. Louis Symphony.

Ralph Vaughan Williams pursued studies with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel but his musical language was thoroughly British. Over more than five decades, he wrote a huge body of works in almost every genre. Composed around 1906, Toward the Unknown Region is a setting of a text from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. (Three years later, Whitman would be the inspiration for Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony.)

Following the solemn brass-dominated chords that open the work, the chorus enters with a melody that seems to rise from the English countryside. The choral sonority was well blended with a varied range of dynamics. Childress made the underlying orchestral lines fully transparent. From plucked or urgent strings to wind solos or brass fanfares, details emerged with definition. At the words “Then we burst forth, we float in time and space,”  the full chorus merges with the orchestra’s harmonic textures for a tumultuous climax. Childress adroitly captured the work’s lyrical sentimentality and joyous outbursts, drawing the best from chorus and orchestra.

In the fateful year of 1791, Mozart completed and premiered  two operas (La Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute) and several other compositions. Badly in need of money, he accepted a commission from a nobleman and amateur composer to write a requiem mass. Part of the deal would be that Mozart’s name would not be on the score so that the commissioner could pass it off as his own. Mozart didn’t live to complete the work before his death in December,1791. Constanze, Mozart’s widow, asked his student Franz Xavier Süssmayr to complete the opus. 

The resulting Requiem in D minor is, nevertheless, one of Mozart’s most important creations. Although highly criticized over the centuries, Süssmayr’s completion is workmanlike and assured and has endured. Indeed, the melody of the Benedictis (by Süssmayr)  is worthy of Mozart.

Under the direction of Brett Karlin, the quality of the Master Chorale’s performances has risen impressively and they were at their best in Mozart’s swan song. Childress’s leisurely tempo allowed the contrapuntal lines of the fugue in the Kyrie to come through with clarity. The women’s voices were particularly strong and agile. 

From her first entrance, Ilanah Lobel-Torres’ soprano resounded with pure tone. In the “Tuba mirum” section of the Dies irae, the rounded sonority of the solo trombone and Daniel Okulitch’s heroic bass-baritone  and rock-solid low notes took special honors.

Although her solo parts were brief, Taylor Raven’s dark, rich and evenly produced mezzo was a joy to hear. Eric Ferring’s lightish tenor blended well with his colleagues, especially in the “Recordare, Jesu piu” quartet. 

The Sanctus was a jubilant cry of joy. Childress consistently drew out the drama of the score and her pacing was immaculate. Süssmayr chose to repeat the initial fugue to the text of the concluding Lux Aeterna and the chorus sang it with even more gleam and heft. Throughout the performance, Childress gave equal emphasis to the orchestral role, making Mozart’s invention distinct. Mozart’s Requiem will always be associated with tragedy but there was warmth and vigor in this traversal.

Stéphane Denève conducts the New World Symphony in an all-Prokofiev program featuring the Classical Symphony, the Suite from The Love for Three Oranges and Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with James Ehnes.  Concert times are 7:30 p.m. November 21 and 2 p.m. November 22 at the New World Center in Miami Beach. nws.edu

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