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Rebecca Rollett, the Pittsburgh Camerata's artistic director, designed a panoramic blueprint of music and art for its "Pictures at an Exhibition" concert at the Carnegie Museum of Art's Hall of Architecture on Sunday afternoon.

This was certainly one of Pittsburgh's most dramatic environments for the group's program, not only for its palpable sense of history in the glorious building facades but also for the sense of timelessness that this art conveys.

But this room also tends to swallow the music in its vast expanses, something that Rollett and the Camerata worked hard to overcome. Led by Rollett's accurate musical cues, the group had a pure and cohesive sense of ensemble, diffused only when there were a series of overlapping entrances.

But that was a minor point in what was a divinely creative pursuit. Picture slides from the museum's current Hudson River exhibit accompanied the choral selections, although the art, which faded in the afternoon light, got the short end of the artistic stick.

The initial pieces, Palestrina's "Sicut cervis" and Ferko's "O verbum Patris," suffered from some strain in the soprano section and a thinness in the altos, but it was only temporary. A warmth took hold in the group's transparent blend, reaching a peak in Vaughan Williams' "The Lover's Ghost" and echoing throughout like ancient voices emanating from their own continuum in time.

-- Review by Jane Vranish,
Post-Gazette music critic

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