Voices Blend for Massive Appeal

Given the dimensions of the Crystal Cathedral, it seemed fitting when the William Hall Master Chorale added more than 650 voices to its own 150 for a choral festival Sunday.

Actually, with the crowd surrounding the cathedral’s music director, Frederick Swann, at the gargantuan organ, and with conductor Hall himself straining to be seen, one expected more mob than music. But the addition of seven community choirs did not bring an end to control.

The Inland, Mountainside and Saddleback master chorales, the Southern California Mormon Choir, the Claremont Chorale, the Cypress Masterworks Chorale and the Crystal Cathedral Choir combined with Hall’s group for fluid, warm tone production in “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” from Brahms’ “A German Requiem.”

But, as in all the evening’s selections with German texts, they sang English translations--a choice that demeaned both the music and the audience.

The massed choirs also sang the Kyrie from Beethoven’s Mass in C, and managed not to overwhelm the well-matched quartet of soloists--soprano Sandra Been, mezzo-soprano Diane Guyett, tenor Ken Smithfield and bass Robert Guyett.

In Baroque pieces, the group unraveled potentially transparent textures and sacrificed any sense of innocence. Without the additional 650, Hall’s singers struggled to be heard; they may have been tired, having sung Berlioz’s “Romeo et Juliette” that afternoon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and also faced acoustics that favored their accompanist.

A cappella performance fared best, as in Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” or in Hall’s arrangements of spirituals, which gave his choir a chance to explore subtle blends and quiet shading.

Individuals from the chorus distinguished themselves in solos, particularly tenor Robert MacNeil, a winner of the 1997 regional Metropolitan Opera auditions. Swann impressed with a full demonstration of pipes, via Healey Willan’s Passacaglia from his Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue.