From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Monday, October 09, 2000
Pittsburgh Camerata's concert of cathedral music is towering
By Rebecca Redshaw
A program titled "Six Centuries of English Cathedral Music" sounds daunting, ambitious and overwhelming. But Saturday night at St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Highland Park, the Pittsburgh Camerata tackled a difficult, varied repertoire and made it sound easy.
Rebecca Rollett is artistic director of this vocal ensemble of 29 voices. In addition to the usual program comments noting details about the selections, a newsletter was distributed to the audience.
The editor (who is not credited by name, but assumed to be Rollett) thoroughly describes the history of each selection, recordings available and even locations in the library of additional materials.
What does this have to do with a review of Saturday night's performance? Well, some of the selections, particularly those on the first half of the program, have rarely, if ever, been heard before in Pittsburgh. Many fans of early church music were in the audience, but one would hope that folks unfamiliar with the pure vocal sound of an ensemble like the Camerata would not be intimidated by 16th- and 17th-century songs titled "Lamentations" and "O Lord, How Long Wilt Thou Be Angry?"
Education without condescension, humor without triteness may help to raise the level of appreciation of this music, take the fear out of attending a performance and add to the enjoyment.
The musical highlight of the evening needed no elaborate explanation. Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Mass in g minor" was an a cappella gem. Opening with haunting melodic lines and open harmonies, the Mass showcased the ensemble's dynamic range, which was seldom tested in the first half of the evening.
A quartet of soloists, Kristen Watson, Kara Cornell, Joseph Haughton, and Adrian Rollett, was particularly effective in the Credo of the Mass.
The English text of "Festival Te Deum" by Benjamin Britten, with lively organ accompaniment by Anthony Rollett, was easily understood. The Camerata maneuvered effortlessly through Britten's intricate rhythmic patterns without ever sacrificing tonal quality.
The first half of the program included a diverse sampling of earlier, shorter works by Handel, Purcell, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and others.
The Camerata will repeat this program at 8 p.m. Friday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Oakmont and at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Church of the Ascension in Oakland.
Rebecca Redshaw is a free-lance writer who reviews classical music for the Post-Gazette.