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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > March > 31
Monday, March 31, 2008
Long Center blows it out at gala fundraisers
The big ticket fundraising galas this weekend came darned close to blowing the top off the new $77 million two-venue performing arts center.
The top ticket-dollar two-night fundraisers started Friday night with a black-tie affair replete with Cirque du Soleil-esque performers greeting party-goers.
Inside, the hour-long concert featured short show-stopping mini-performances by Long Center founding resident companies Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet.
But the two highlights were pianist Anton Nel and composer and pianist Graham Reynolds, both of whom delivered sublime performances, Reynold’s a smart piece of his own creation.
Saturday it was more down-home and casual. Though nothing was ordinary about stellar all-star line-up of talent — Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Ray Benson, Rick Trevino and Flaco Jimenez — who altogether delivered a rewarding two-hours of solid Texas style.
Afterwards a fireworks display — one of the best Austin has ever seen — lit up the downtown skyline.
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Review: Chorus Austin
There were many moments of genuinely fine choral singing Saturday evening in Chorus Austin’s presentation of Mendelssohn’s “other” oratorio, “St. Paul.”
Conductor Kenneth Sheppard pulled together, as he has on other occasions, three choral ensembles: the Austin Civic Chorus — the host chorus, if you will — Sheppard’s Southwestern University Chorale and Bruce Cain’s San Gabriel Chorale, also from Georgetown.
Where previously this mass of humanity — physically taking over the sanctuary of Northwest Hills United Methodist Church — produced underwhelming results, in this performance I was delighted to hear four rich-toned and distinct sections (in particular, one of the nicest-sounding alto sections I’ve heard in years) making spirited music together.
The quartet of vocal soloists had good moments too. Unfortunately, Austin favorite mezzo-soprano Virginia Dupuy, was saddled with little solo music that never let her show off the best parts of her voice. Baritone Bruce Cain, portraying Saul/Paul, despite accurate singing sounded dry and lacked the presence to make the role convincing. Soprano Janeene Williams sounded lovely, though numerous little notes weren’t in tune. Tenor Scot R. Cameron was impressive, always clarion-clear of voice and diction and expressively on target.
The movements with chorus frequently generated great energy and momentum. Over and over, this energy was dissipated by Sheppard’s pauses between movements that were a couple of seconds too long and by the recitatives, those odd bits for the soloists that form the narrative connecting tissue of most oratorios. The otherwise excellent orchestra sounded insecure, and Sheppard seemed to take literally the idea of following his soloists: He was usually about a half-beat behind them.
One more nice touch, though a subtle one, was that Saturday was the first performance using a new critical edition of the score being published in Germany by Bärenreiter, the fruit of 15 years of work by Michael Cooper, a musicologist at Southwestern. For those who understand that Mendelssohn spoke English better than many natives, it was good to hear his long-suppressed English version, restored in the new edition.
Many musicians and music-lovers know only one Mendelssohn oratorio, “Elijah”; yet, for 10 years, until “Elijah” was premiered in Birmingham in 1846, “St. Paul” was Mendelssohn’s most important composition and a generally acknowledged peak of oratorio composition in the 19th century. This production more often than not represented Mendelssohn’s first oratorio well.
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