Boy Choristers, Instrumentalists Try to Spread the Holiday Spirit

A few gremlins were at work to lessen the impact of an elegant holiday musicale put on by Chamber Music in Historic Sites on Sunday, but the venerable series remained largely undamaged. A near-capacity and receptive audience surely came away from the Gothic beauties of Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Boulevard inspired by both familiar and rare seasonal fare that extended from plainsong through Bach to the 20th century.

In some exposed portions of a generous Christmas program, intonational lapses weakened the usual purity and accuracy of the admired Paulist Boy Choristers of California. A mediocre touring brass ensemble, the East Coast-based Center City Brass Quintet, offered variety but added few thrills to the proceedings.

Organist Edward Murray supported the eclectic Christmas agenda, and played at the finale of each half of the program a virtuoso toccata with taste and energy. The Choristers’ auxiliary men’s ensemble, Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, performed nobly.

The handsome church, the design of which, in the words of architecture annotator Lisa M. Snyder, “emphasizes the verticality of the structure,” is both imposing and welcoming, a combination not unusual in buildings of the late 1920s. The sanctuary proved again a felicitous acoustical space, probing but clear.

The Choristers, conducted with taut musicality by Dana Marsh, excelled in the 20th century portions of the program, particularly in pieces by Walton, Warlock, Tavener and Mathias. The brass quintet played works of Bach and Scheidt neatly but later delivered little joy in a long and cheesy medley of familiar carols.