Camerata of L.A. Loses Focus in St. Augustine Free-for-Alls

The program begged for subtlety, direction and profundity Sunday night at St. Augustine Catholic Church, but relief was rarely at hand. Led with florid gesticulation by H. Vincent Mitzelfelt, the Camerata of Los Angeles, joined by members of the St. Augustine Church choir, plodded and shouted through what should have been some of the most compelling and dramatic moments of J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 31 and Mozart’s Requiem.

Portions for full chorus and orchestra dissolved into free-for-alls: Singers blurred lines, garbled words, brought phrases to fuzzy conclusions and seemed to discover no depth to the text. The orchestra competed successfully in an apparent contest of relative volume.

What little respite was to be found came from soloists. In the Cantata, following a dreary reading of the recitative and aria for bass, by Gordon La Cross, St. Augustine’s music director, Father John Schiavone brought a sure sense of baroque style and a slim, well-trained tenor to “Adam Muss in uns Verwesen” (All Thy Sins Must Be Forgiven). Soprano Katherine Russell proved technically reliable in her solo.

In the Requiem, soprano Barbara Dove, mezzo-soprano Sarah Hensley, tenor Bruce Boyd and baritone Arthur Edwards united for pleasant, if unremarkable, quartets.

A recent hospital stay of the scheduled harpsichordist, resident organist Philip Smith, prevented the planned performance of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. Instead, Mitzelfelt substituted two arias from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion”--the soprano aria “For Love Now Is My Savior Dying,” given a hesitant reading (in English) by Sally Rosinkranz; and the tenor aria “I Would Be With My Jesus Watching,” salvaged by Schiavone’s light, focused clarity.

Another last-minute inclusion, Cantata No. 51, by Bach--Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen--received serviceable attention from Dove, judging by what could be heard over the orchestra, and a first-rate obbligato from Grant Hungerford on trumpet.