Shaping a Work That Has Returned to Fashion
The New York Times - May 16, 2008

Monteverdi’s “Vespro Della Beata Vergine” (1610) seems to be in fashion at the moment. Years go by when performances are few and far between (although recordings are always plentiful), yet over the last five years or so they have been turning up several times a year, sometimes performed by period-instrument bands and Baroque vocal specialists but often by church choirs supported by modern forces. The performance Kent Tritle conducted at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Wednesday evening as the season finale of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series was in the second category. But it gave specialists and period-instrument fanciers no reason to feel smug. Mr. Tritle, his superb chamber choir and an orchestra of mostly modern instruments gave a viscerally thrilling performance. (Recorders and a theorbo helped suggest a more antique sound.) Mr. Tritle did not ignore stylistic niceties entirely. He regularly reconfigured his singers to make the most of the work’s antiphonal qualities, and he took St. Ignatius’s vibrant acoustics and appointments into account, both in choosing his tempos and in placing a second singer in the choir loft for the echo movements. (That seems elementary, but conductors sometimes don’t bother, thereby losing one of this score’s great effects.) He used a trim instrumental ensemble, and he clearly encouraged his singers to think carefully about the crisp execution of Monteverdi’s often floridly ornamental vocal lines. And although he used female sopranos and altos, he had his singers use scarcely any vibrato, a decision that yielded a purity of tone like that of a boys choir. But the soul of the performance was in the malleability of Mr. Tritle’s tempos and dynamics. He shaped the “Laudate Pueri” with the impetuousness you might expect in a Monteverdi madrigal more than in a sacred work, but that made all the difference: this setting of Psalm 112 should have an ecstatic undercurrent. At the other end of the spectrum, the dynamic gradations in the gentler “Duo Seraphim” gave the movement a mystical otherworldliness. The soloists, all from the choir, were a mixed lot: some projected beautifully, but several were consistently underpowered. And there were balance problems in parts of the Magnificat, where the instrumentalists sometimes swamped the singers. But these were fleeting problems. When Mr. Tritle and his choir were at their best — in their bright-edged rendering of the “Dixit Dominus” and their warm-hued “Ave Maris Stella,” for example — they tapped into the sublime joy of the work more thoroughly than any ensemble I’ve heard perform these Vespers in a long while. By Allan Kozinn

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Sometimes Those Magicians of Song Need to Show What's Up Their Sleeves
The New York Times - February 15, 2008

Magicians are generally ill advised to reveal their tricks, but when the conductor Kent Tritle let the audience in on a few crafty secrets during a concert by the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola on Wednesday night, the tactic paid off. The major work on the program, presented at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola as part of its Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series, was the Concerto for Choir by Alfred Schnittke. Mr. Tritle and his choir performed the piece here in 2005; this time it was being recorded for a CD. The concerto, a 1985 setting of texts from the “Book of Lamentations” by the 10th-century Armenian monk St. Gregory of Narek, is one of Schnittke’s most sublime and mysterious creations. In place of his usual stylistic juxtapositions and brittle humor, he drew here on Russian liturgical music. To the spare a cappella textures and solemn pace of ancient tradition, Schnittke added a patina of generally mild dissonance. Some passages acquire an almost heartbreaking luminescence, others a terrifying edge. Ghostly voices seem to hover in the thickened air during climaxes. Before performing the work Mr. Tritle had his singers demonstrate the methods Schnittke used to create his special effects: a juxtaposition of similar melodies in slightly different rhythms to create a shimmer in the first movement, spreading the syllables of words among multiple singers to fashion a bell-like pulsation in the second. As it happened, understanding how Schnittke’s effects were created did not undercut a sense of awe inspired by the intense emotions they conjured. In the actual performance the singers did themselves proud, delivering a deeply heartfelt account with polished tone and excellent diction. Another elucidating gesture at the beginning of the concert had the choir deployed around front and side aisles to clarify musical strands in the dense, intricate 40-voice motet “Ecce Beatam Lucem” by the 16th-century Italian composer Alessandro Striggio. The choir sang passionately in Alberto Ginastera’s “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” a substantial, moving work composed in 1946 during Ginastera’s exile to the United States after Juan Perón had assumed power in Argentina. But here climaxes were shrill, and finer points of diction were lost to the resonant acoustic. By Steve Smith

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A Young Shepherd's Ageless Trek
The New York Times - December 17, 2007

Few composers in the 20th century devoted more time and craft to opera than Gian Carlo Menotti, who died in February at 95. Yet from a sizable body of work that includes two Pulitzer Prize-winning works (“The Consul” and “The Saint of Bleecker Street”), only one of Menotti’s operas can truly be said to have achieved lasting popularity: “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” a brief, modest work created for NBC television and first performed in a live broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1951.

New York City Opera brought the work to the stage in 1952. “Amahl” is said to have been performed more than 2,500 times since then, a tally surely due to its eager adoption by semiprofessional and amateur opera companies, schools and churches. One of several New York presentations of “Amahl” this season was mounted on Friday at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola as part of its valuable series Sacred Music in a Sacred Space.

Menotti’s opera isn’t sacred music; still, presenting it in a church seems fitting. “Amahl” is the modern equivalent of a medieval mystery play, except that its story is not biblical but an invented fable. The libretto, written by Menotti, involves Amahl, a lame shepherd given to little white lies, and his destitute mother, who are visited by the Magi as they follow the star of Bethlehem.

The work’s appeal is obvious. Menotti’s music is attractive and unfailingly lyrical. Gaps in logic are countered by humorous touches. When Amahl’s desperate mother tries to pocket a bit of gold meant for the Christ child, the effort is all too relatable. And a selfless act on the shepherd boy’s part culminates in a Christmas miracle.

The director, Kate Bushmann, made resourceful use of the church in a semistaged production that relied on minimal props, evocative lighting by David Castaneda and a long central aisle to create a sense of setting. Kent Tritle, the conductor, performed a near-miracle in balancing performers spread throughout the imposing space.

Andres Felipe Aristizabal, a boy soprano, was the alert, confident Amahl. His voice seemed unruly at times, but this only served to heighten the character’s excitable personality. Both Mr. Aristizabal and the mezzo-soprano Ory Brown, who played his mother, were amplified. Their voices carried well enough, but climaxes were harsh, and their diction was rendered muddy by the church’s resonance.

James Archie Worley, Peter Stewart and Matt Boehler, who portrayed the Magi, and Gregory Purnhagen, their page, sang clearly and powerfully without amplification and brought a winning spirit to their roles.

Mr. Tritle’s orchestra, tucked to one side of the altar, sounded splendid. And the combined forces of St. Ignatius Loyola’s professional choir, children’s choir and Parish Community Choir sang with passion and finesse in the opera and in a group of Christmas carols that preceded it. By Steve Smith.

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Babylon, Persia and Israel in Full Voice
The New York Times - October 27, 2007

One of the most unusual musical moments in Handel’s magnificent oratorio “Belshazzar” comes when the blasphemous King Belshazzar of Babylon is warned of his impending doom by a disembodied hand’s writing on the wall in a mysterious script. Handel accompanies this portentous moment not (as might be expected) with a thundering chorus but with strange, stark, unaccompanied fragments in the violins.

There are plenty of magnificent choruses, beautiful arias and dramatic recitatives elsewhere in this seldom-performed oratorio, which has mostly fallen through the cracks in the continuing Handel revival. It received a vibrant performance at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Wednesday, with Kent Tritle conducting the Choir and Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola as part of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series.

Handel composed “Belshazzar” to a libretto by Charles Jennens in 1744 (soon after “Semele”) but revised it at the last minute the following year when the singer scheduled to perform Daniel became ill. Handel gives the chorus, which represents the Babylonians, Persians and Jews, a full workout, and the St. Ignatius singers sounded superb, singing with plenty of bite, dynamic shading and mostly clear enunciation. They conveyed both the earnest determination of the captive Israelites and the conquering Persians and the belligerence of the pampered, oblivious Babylonians, whose hubris seems disturbingly familiar today.

The orchestra’s lean, taut and fiery playing fully revealed the theatrical turbulence of the colorful score. Mark Bleeke was suitably odious in the title role, conveying the indolent king’s swaggering insouciance with a powerful tenor and dramatic flair. In the difficult role of his mother, Nitocris, Leslie Fagan sang with a bright, nimble soprano and aptly portrayed the anguish of a parent who despairs of her vile son yet still loves him. By Vivien Schweitzer

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3 Soloists Give Voice to a Mighty Instrument
The New York Times - July 4, 2007

About 350 organists are registered participants in the regional convention of the American Guild of Organists this week in New York. Some of them could be overheard on Monday night talking with admiration about the organ at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue, before a concert there with the church's orchestra.

Those who know more about the subject than I do say this church's organ, completed in 1993 by Mander Organs in London, is a magnificent instrument that combines modern technology with historical elements. The organ certainly sounded glorious in three concertos and one de facto concerto, Samuel Barber's "Toccata Festiva," during Monday night's concert, which was conducted by Kent Tritle, the director of music ministries at St. Ignatius...

Renée Anne Louprette, a technically nimble and dynamic organist who is associate music director at St. Ignatius, was the soloist in the next two works. First came the Chorale and Waltz from Ned Rorems 1985 Organ Concerto...Mr. Rorem's music became, in effect, a prelude to Poulencs Concerto in G minor, one of the best-known organ concertos...The performance won a deserved ovation.

So did the performance of Stephen Paulus's substantive 1992 concerto for organ, timpani, percussion and strings, by Nancianne Parrella, associate organist at St. Ignatius. - Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

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CD REVIEW: Les Corps Glorieux
All Music Guide - May 2007

One wouldn't naturally think of the combination of organ, harp and cello as being a particularly practical or well-matched ensemble. However, this MSR Classics disc, Les Corps Glorieux, which is part of their Music from St. Ignatius Loyola series, may well surprise you. Featuring organist Nancianne Parrella, harpist Victoria Drake and cellist Arthur Fiacco, this unassumingly designed disc has a gorgeous sound and a very pleasing selection of unfamiliar – mostly French – literature. Fiacco plays with a very rich, old-fashioned cello tone that makes extended use of portamenti and blends very nicely with Parrella's organ. Drake's harp playing is tasteful, rather darkly colored and not plucky, and, like Fiacco, relates very well to the organ. The three of them playing together, as they do on Henri Büsser's Le sommeil de l'enfant Jesus, results in a fabulous tonal blend that almost automatically places one in a state of devotional relaxation. Yet the musical program is serious and not New Agey – here is short-lived contemporary composer Chris DeBlasio's setting of "God is Our Righteousness" and a gorgeous "Aria" from a Suite for Organ and Harp composed by Louis White so intriguing that it strongly makes one wonder what the rest of the suite sounds like. Parrella, Drake and Fiacco do not play the whole disc through together, but everyone gets a solo showcase, which is an intelligent choice in such an unusual program. MSR Classics' Les Corps Glorieux is a perfect disc for late night reading, or even for taking a bubble bath in the dark surrounded by candles, and its music will prove strongly accessible to both those of a religious inclination and non-believers as well – all one needs is a desire for a little peace in one's life to enjoy this. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis

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