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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > September > 26 > Entry
Review: Conspirare
Samuel Barber referred to himself as a “living dead composer,” explained Margaret Perry in her pre-concert lecture this weekend before the Conspirare concert. It’s a humble-brag: Barber felt confident he would be remembered, but his name never seemed to be on the tongue of America’s music lovers, even though the “Adagio” which cemented his legacy appeared in film after film.
So it was a pleasure to hear Conspirare’s voices open their 19th season with an all-Barber concert under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson.
The two halves of the concert pulled us much deeper into Barber’s repertoire, and revealed very different styles in Barber’s choral work.
These were fairly short works that had rhythmic intrigue, sometimes elusive harmonies against lyrics that were by turns abstract and poetic.
“God’s Grandeur” began with bold, goose-bumping chords, and outstanding tone from the tenor and bass voices. The hall sounded noticeably crisp and reverberant.
“Let Down the Bars, O Death,” was especially pretty, if dark; haunting in subject, key and its brevity.
The male and female voices refuse to intersect in “To be Sung on the Water,” a gorgeous work that implies a sorrowful distance between the two voices.
When the first notes of the “Adagio” came rolling slowly through the hall the choir was both chilling and uplifting.
Conspirare fans will impatiently await its recording.
Composer Robert Kyr, in attendance at the performance, did us the service of rearranging Barber’s “The Lovers” for a chamber orchestra.
It’s a long work, set to the poetry of Pablo Neruda.
There are some erotic lines, but most are quite chaste, and the music looks more to the sublime side of love: a vulnerability and sense of loss.
Some lyrics are quite ungainly in both translation and their placement in the line, turning soloist David Farwig into the role of a spoken-word poet, as he hustled to stay ahead of the music.
It’s a difficult work without easy melodies, the kind that rewards multiple listens.
Conspirare’s latest CD, “Sing Freedom!” came from last year’s opening concert, and that pattern will repeat with a recording of Barber.
All indications are that it should be a stunner.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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