MUSIC REVIEW : Tribute Opens Choral Society New Season

Richard Willis may not be a household name, except around Baylor University, where the 63-year-old musician is composer-in-residence. But among his local disciples is Nick Strimple, who opened the Choral Society of Southern California season Sunday afternoon at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, with a tribute to his former teacher.

The survey of Willis’ own works revealed eclectically inspired but stylistically consistent music, well-crafted in a conservative, tonally centered idiom. It is, not incidentally, extremely flattering to its performers.

Strimple and the Choral Society made the most of the many opportunities to display robust declamatory sound, without minimizing the dancing subtext of the extended psalm setting, in “Give Unto the Lord.” Mark Robson provided the piano punctuation.

Suave, balanced production distinguished “The Drenched Land,” a madrigalesque setting of a Kenneth Patchen text. “Song of Praise” proved a miniature “Give Unto the Lord.”

Strimples’ own large psalm setting, “Qui confidunt in Domino,” reflected the same sturdy, almost generic, neo-Baroque style, quite unruffled by the shouted climaxes. Casey Criste delivered the large central baritone solos fluently, while Joyce Jones supplied the requisite bravura at the organ.

Jones also demonstrated that Willis’ music sings even without voices, in his Fantasy for Organ. The “Omaggio a Richard” by Doug Borwick presented the kind of ostinatos, irregular meters and arching melodies that would become very familiar as the afternoon wore on, played with moody eloquence by Jones in its premiere performance.

Steven Stucky, composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is another former Willis pupil, and his poignant “Drop, Drop, Slow Tears”--easily the most individual work on the program--is becoming something of a choral classic locally. The program also included Stucky’s lively, more conventional glee, “Spring and Fall.”

Willis’ Fantasy on “Ville du Havre” for oboe and piano, and Sonatina for violin and piano, may have added little to our appreciation of the substance of his art, but confirmed his idiomatic skills with instruments. Kathleen Robinson projected the emotional intensity of the hymn tune fantasy with supple elan, and Debra Price played the thoroughly virtuosic Sonatina with big, gruff sound and fiery spirit. Robson accompanied both with alert musicality.