Chorale finale draws big crowd
By Molly Gore
The standby line at the Mission Church Friday night stretched to O'Connor Hall with hopefuls anxious to catch the sold-out Santa Clara Chorale's season finale, Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."
There was little standing room left, as every corner of the Mission Church was stuffed with patrons, half of whom could not even see the choir.
Though there was much to see, there was much more to hear at the final performance of the Chorale and the Santa Clara Concert Choir, who were joined by the highly acclaimed Pacific Boychoir, The Choral Project and several guest artists.
Opening with a piece that sent shivers down the spine, the "Carmina Burana" began with its powerful signature piece, "O Fortuna." The haunting, powerful melody has been used widely in movie soundtracks and commercials, making it one of the most publicly popular pieces of classical music today.
The subject of the "Carmina Burana" was surprisingly secular for its time. Orff gathered 24 poems whose content celebrated the pleasures and pitfalls of drinking, debauchery, gambling, wealth and lust, as well as the unpredictable course of fortune and fate.
He structured the "Carmina Burana" based on his conception of "total theater," a performance in which music, text and theatrics combine to form a stunning spectacle. However, more contemporary performances of the "Carmina Burana" feature the composition as a concert piece with no stage performance.
As engaging as the composition would be with a visual display, the music needs no stage. Classical music as a genre alienates many, but Orff's work is delightfully accessible without diluting its medieval flavor and Gregorian authenticity. Melting from the jarring "O Fortuna" into a different mood, the full chorus moved smoothly into a much lighter, delicate set of melodies whose lyrics celebrated the return of spring. The sparkling percussion and light accompaniment begged the listener to feel the image of the poems' dancing maidens and blossoming forest.
The next movement transitioned to a celebration of tavern life. Here the instrumentals were stronger, deeper and very lazy in their movement, and the horns sounded almost drunken. This part was also entirely performed by the boys choir and male soloists, who gave a jovial performance with an appropriate swaggering style to the vocals. Toward the end of the movement, baritone Zachary Gordin performed a complex a cappella solo over infrequent bursts from the orchestra.
Part III, "Cour d'amours," spoke of the joy and distress of love. The accompaniment again became flighty and fast, and mezzo soprano Sonia Gariaeff emerged with perhaps the most dazzling vocal display of the set. Gariaeff injected a feeling of perceptible sorrow in her performance of "In Trutina," an emotional conflict between lust and chastity. The choir shifted to an exaltation of love and tangible joy with a full chorus recital that soon melted into a reprise of "O Fortuna." As the composition came full circle, so had the wheel of fortune as the chorus accepted the inevitable presence of fate.
Though the members of the crowd seemed to be mostly seasoned patrons of the classical music recital, a handful of students appeared, as well. Whether they knew what to expect or not, the listeners were visibly pleased and engaged by the performance, shown by the hands conducting phantom orchestras sprinkled throughout the audience.
Contact Molly Gore at (408) 551-1918 or mgore@scu.edu.