Music Review : Master Chorale Puts Heart Into It

With love as the heady topic, nostalgia and yearning dripped from almost every piece in the concert presented by the Master Chorale of Orange County on Sunday at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Fortunately, these sentiments came wrapped--mostly in lofty settings--during the program titled “A Valentine’s Gift.”

Works by Brahms held central position. Under music director William Hall’s meticulous eye, the “Liebeslieder” Waltzer, Opus 52, sparkled with gentle grace. The singers varied dynamics, tempos and emotions--stormy or lilting, surging or simple--with consistent mellifluousness and point, while pianists Sandra McCune) and Tania Fleischer lent attentive verve to the four-hand accompaniment.

In “An die Heimat” (To My Homeland), Brahms’ dark longing soared to aching climax through careful courting of phrases, fluidly sustained and saliently propelled. Hall adapted songs, originally written by Brahms for quartet or small ensemble, for his larger forces. “Die Boten der Liebe” (The Heralds of Love), transferred from soprano-and-alto duet to men’s choir with powerful effect. “Die Meere” (The Seas) blew somber and fitful.

Hall also led arrangements of three songs by Schumann. His own attractive setting of “Herbstlied” (Autumn Song) for four parts, expanded from two, luxuriated in flowing legato, emerging tentative and caressing.

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In a chatty aside, Hall described himself as a miniaturist, and his three settings of poems from Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” corroborated handsomely. As one might expect, they revel in pure vocal sonorities. Hall provides piano parts, but they are minimal, a carefully placed chord or phrase group, here and there, meant to focus awareness on the chorus and mood, or to highlight mild dissonances that accommodate textual meaning.

Using songs by Irving Berlin and by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Hall played on warm memories of youth and romance with two sing-alongs, complete with rose-laden choral members sent out into the audience.

Thankfully, he chose not to close with this kitschy touch, but with Norman Dello Joio’s bittersweet “Come to Me,” on Christina Rossetti’s “Echo.”