From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Saturday, April 1, 2000

Choir makes challenging music shine

By Bob Karlovits

Tribune-Review Music Writer

Rebecca Rollett evidently didn't think the challenges of a magnificent requiem from the 17th century were enough for her Pittsburgh Camerata, so she came up with a few more.

 

Namely, the artistic director of the group constructed a second half with a look at choral renditions of one theme - but selected music that ranged in styles of the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries.

 

And that was after the choir had already taken on a 32-minute "Musikalische Exequien" by Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672) that was full of all its own test.

 

The 27-voice choir opened its last series of concerts for the season at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Oakmont Friday night in a concert that was convincing both in its performance and its programming.

 

Only about 50 people attended, but the choir has two more opportunities to display the strengths of this show.

 

The Schutz piece is a big enough work that the second half wouldn't have had to be as tough as it was.  The requiem, written in 1636, is in three movements and is full of lyrical and thematic demands.  Most of them were met.

 

For instance, in one section soprano Amy Bassett and bass Adrian Rollett, son of the artistic director, offered both sorts of interplay - and obviously at opposite ends of the vocal range.

 

There were times that weren't as smooth.  Tenor Joseph Haughton was ragged at the very beginning of the piece - almost as bad a time to do that as at the end - but straightened up immediately and was impressive the rest of the evening.

 

Basses Rollett and Paul Nicolaysen were a little stiff in one passage that otherwise could have been one of the strongest movements of the work.

 

Overall, though, the choir performed the long work well.  Their Germanic elecution was generally sound, with only a few spells of overpowering throatiness.

 

The work is so beautiful, though, that it is possible to listen to it without paying much attention to the lyrics.  Patricia Halverson, viola da gamba player from Chatham Baroque, and Anthony Rollett, the organist husband of the artistic director, accompanied the choir.

 

The second half took a look at musical settings of the Book of Solomon and opened with three motets by a Schutz contemporary, Melchior Franck (1580-1639).  In its classical form and German lyrics, it created a feeling of continuity from the requiem, but it proved to be just transition.

 

It led to two pieces by American William Billings (1749-1800) and one my Daniel Pinkham, who is alive.

 

The Billings pieces were full of the sound of American folk music and the four-movement Pinkham composition has definite 20th-century harmonics and even touches of the blues.