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MP3: Mozart – Requiem Mass in D Minor, III. Sequentia: Dies Irae

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MP3: Mozart – Requiem Mass in D Minor, V. Sanctus: Benedictus

Guest conducting this night: Jun Märkl, winging our way from the faraway Leipzig Radio Symphony and the Orchestre de Lyon. He led us on an unexpected journey from Neoclassical Greek pastoral to the hearty Dominus et Deus German Classicism of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem.

Our appetizer: the plotless ballet Apollo – a gem of calm, ordered balance – from the tone-filled brain of Ruskie exile: Igor Stravinsky. (Apropos of the occasion, I’m writing this dispatch from West Hollywood – WeHo – where Stravinsky made his home).

Whereas last week I berated the duration of Chicago’s Stravinsky-focused performance, I delighted as the BSO lingered over Apollo. The BSO, stripped down to its string core, delivered with polish. Closing your eyes, you could see near-naked dancers in bits of gauze floating and flitting around the cellos and violins, peeping a bared leg out from behind the basses. The “Birth of Apollo” is accomplished by lush triumph with a little violin flutter. Deeper bass and cello meanderings sound off Leto’s labor pains in bringing forth her divine twins.

Conductor Märkl pivots on the foot like a dancer in the court of Louis XIV — the model for this very ballet. His arms sweep long and graceful over his players’ heads. Jonathan Carney, this performance’s Apollo, sings sweet, sawing on his Strad with supple lines. Assistant concertmaster, Igor Yuzefovich flits around Carney’s notes like a muse prancing before her god. The cellos turn positively goat-like – a little gruff, a little prancing – offering the only darkness in the piece, which we can easily draw up over our laps like a blanket of soft cloud. All in all, we hear how far an orchestra can run on strings alone.

Enter the choristers. The Baltimore Choral Arts Society lent their fantastic scope to the night’s travels, as if our intermission took us on a fast train from B.C. Greece to 18th century Vienna. Call it “all-gauze-and-azure forgotten.”

Two trumpets formed the right flank, alongside the timpani, while the trombones took the left. Strings formed the front guard with a few bassoons, while the choristers brought up the rear with crisp force in full. Four soloists took center front. Of them, we applaud the soprano, Christine Brandes, for the clearest ennunciation. Her mezzo-soprano counterpart, Susan Platts, sang far back in the throat, swallowing some endings but improving by the Benedictus. Our tenor for the evening, Roger Honeywell, first came across about as clearly as an old Victrola record playing in the far corner of the room.

All throughout the Sequentia the strings and their flanks of bronze lifted the voices like a principal dancer (in the days before Nureyev) whose job is to step back and show the lady. A lovely gesture, and well-intended, but I’d ask the orchestra to dominate a little more – especially in a piece known for its deathly dark overtones.

One of my friends warned me: “Leave after the Lacrimosa” – since Mozart himself didn’t put together the last bits. I’d have been happy to oblige and exit on the height of orchestral force where the horns come back in full on donna eis requiem. However, the textural layering of voices in the Offeratorium – contested protestations of promisisti – were fantastic.

At the Agnus Dei, the horns crest in a final big flare up and the strings resume a current of rumbling tension that proves we still have a little more supplication to do. The bassoons shine before collapsing into the waves of Lux Aeterna…eternal light.

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