Music Reviews : Holiday Fare From Chanticleer

Chanticleer, the male a cappella ensemble from San Francisco, seems to be making some changes in musical direction, and for those who have been following this fine ensemble for a while, the changes are a bit distressing.

In a two-part Christmas concert Saturday at Wilshire Christian Church, sponsored by the Da Camera Society as part of its Chamber Music in Historic Sites series, the group typically divided repertory between works of the 12th Century through the Renaissance in the first half of the program and returned with more recent and popular fare in the second.

The problems occurred in the second half, where the group appeared to be sacrificing fervor and meaningful interpretation in favor of mellow sound, sentimentality, sleepy tempos and some cloying Modernaires-style arrangements.

Given the virtues so evident in Chanticleer’s singing of earlier as well as contemporary serious music, one wondered at such mannered and enervated choices.

Sure, with its whistling chorus and, especially, its little whistling flourish, “The Christmas Song” by Mel Torme and Robert Wells as arranged by Walter Ehret could be enjoyed as campy entertainment.

But the close harmonies and narrowly limited range of K. Mast’s arrangement of “Winter Wonderland” submerged the tune and began to get tiring fast.

The morality drama of “Good King Wenceslas” became mere contrast in tempo in Channing Lefebvre’s arrangement. And “Oh Holy Night,” as arranged by group artistic director Joseph Jennings for drone bass and bing-bong accompaniment behind the soloist, simply amazed at the insensitivity to the words.

Still, Jennings’ arrangement of spirituals, which closed the concert, drew spirited applause and elicited “Silent Night” as an encore.

At least one person felt, however, that the group had earned greater accolades in the first part of the program. Highlights included the study in pianissimo the 12-member group made of the Coventry Carol; their uncanny accuracy in the thorny, wandering tonalities of Handl’s “Mirabile Mysterium”; and the vigor they brought to Spanish works of the 16th Century.