Oratorio Society of New York – 11/10/25
Saint Andrew Music Society – Chorale and Orchestra – 11/16/25
A friend of mine is a member of the Theater Development Fund and had two $5 TDF vouchers for the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. Of course I wanted to join her. We heard Fern Hill (1961, arr. 1999), written by John Corigliano and Mass in C Minor, K. 427 (1782–1783) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. One of the composers was in the house. Do you want to hazard a guess?
The Corigliano was fairly modern in terms of harmonies. It is a setting of Dylan Thomas’ poem of the same name. As always, understanding the text of choral settings is a little difficult, especially if you’re hearing them for the first time, which I was. Fortunately, the text was included in the Carnegie Hall Playbill, as was the text of the Mass, with which I was much more familiar. I’m not great with estimating numbers, but the Oratorio Society chorus was about 200 strong. An octet of soloists from within the group acquitted themselves quite well, as did the entire group. I glanced through the names, but none caught my eye. Not so when I glanced through the orchestra names. Lo and behold, I knew the organist, Andrew Henderson.
There was also a quartet of soloists for the Mass who also acquitted themselves quite well. The Bass-Baritone had precious little to do, but he did it with aplomb. A day or so after the concert, I emailed Mr. Henderson, who answered with a note about his upcoming concert, and asked if I would be interested in a comp ticket. Yes, indeedy.
The Saint Andrew concert consisted of Vesperae Solenelles de Confessore, K. 339 (1780) by the aforementioned W.A. Mozart and Saint Nicolas Op. 42 (1948) by Benjamin Britten – Introduction; The Birth of Nicolas; Nicolas Devotes Himself to God; He Journeys to Palestine; Nicolas Comes to Myra and Is Chosen Bishop; Nicolas from Prison; Nicolas and the Pickled Boys; His Piety and Marvellous Works; The Death of Nicolas. I enjoyed the Mozart, but I was taken aback by the Britten. First off, there was a third vocal ensemble—the New York City Children’s Chorus – Mary Huff, Artistic Director. Soloists in the work included Saint Nicolas (tenor), The Boy Nicolas (treble), and Three Pickled Boys (trebles). Logistically, the performance was a tour-de-force. Soloists entered from stage right and sang in front of the conductor, who was in front of the orchestra, which was in front of the Chorale vocalists. Confused yet? The Boy Nicolas was the first soloist followed by Saint Nicolas and then the Three Pickled Boys who made their way down from the gallery, where the youthful choristers were seated, and then entered down the center aisle of the sanctuary for their brief shining moments, before exiting to the stage right area and somehow making their way back to the gallery. In a somewhat more modern take, the New York City Children’s Chorus treats trebles equally*—in fact, two of The Pickled Boys were female. The work is essentially a cantata in two parts with a hymn for the choirs and the congregation at the end of the first half and a concluding hymn for the choirs and the congregation to end the work. This was my first time hearing the work and I was mightily impressed. I would love to hear it again sometime. The tenor solo part was written for Peter Pears, which makes perfect sense; Mr. Molomot was well up to the task.
All in all, a great week of listening for me.
ConcertMeister
*My first paid choir gig was as an alto in a choir of Men and Boys. Many choirs maintain that distinction, but female trebles are making inroads.
