Music Reviews : Daniel Pinkham Conducts Pasadena Pro Musica

Daniel Pinkham’s oeuvre includes concertos and various chamber works, but he is best known for his choral and organ music.

Sunday afternoon, the enterprising Pasadena Pro Musica brought the 66-year-old composer to its podium for a program of his own pieces, the familiar Easter Cantata of 1957 and the St. Mark Passion from 1965, plus the West Coast premiere of an attractive novelty, “The Saints Preserve Us!”.

The Passion is a deeply serious musical narrative, its pointed text imaginatively compiled from Biblical sources by Pinkham. The solo writing is angular and expressive, and the choral parts mostly taut homophony. A continuo group of organ, harp and string bass accompany the Evangelist, with moody brass and percussion backing the full chorus.

Tenor Reuben Moulton made a musically pertinent narrator, though his clear voice was severely challenged by the range of the part. Soprano Judy Montgomery was vocally more secure in her varied ariosos, but she left them almost inert and monochromatic. Ray Fielder proved more comfortable in the incidental baritone solos of Pilate than the basso growls of Judas.

Pinkham conducted with an underwhelming emphasis on restraint. Balances favored the instruments in the Neighborhood Church acoustic, creating murky textures in the massed passages.

Pro Musica conductor Edward Low brought out all the vivacious energy in the Easter Cantata, which now sounds dated except in the mysterious prelude and the firmly focused Alleluias. His chorus sang smoothly, stumbling a bit in the imitative “Go quickly” close of the third movement, but alert and clear otherwise. Again, the brass accompaniment tended to subsume the voices in the big moments.

With only a piano--deftly played by Stephen Grimm--in accompaniment, the best sustained choral work came in “The Saints Preserve Us!” as conducted by Pinkham.

A knowing, affectionate parody of many musical styles, the piece is his salute to such otherwise unsung figures as St. Aquacia, patroness of washing machines, and St. Canaria (“On her holy day revere birdseed and ledger lines, her symbols. And remember that no one ever bought a ticket to hear a low note.”), patroness of sopranos.