A pleasing classical evening with CHASE

Michael Reckord, Sunday Gleaner Writer

'A Classical Evening With CHASE', the concert sponsored by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund at The Wyndham Kingston Hotel last Sunday, started almost an hour late.

The first musical note sounded at 6:25 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m. because the audience took its own sweet time getting to the venue. The hotel's large ballroom had been prepared for perhaps 600 people, but barely half that number eventually made it.

The low turnout might have been because the concert was free - people tend not to value that which is free - but that would not have been the reason for the absence of the official patrons, the governor general and his wife. The audience was simply told they could not make it.

More people should have attended; the concert turned out to be quite good. And it would have been even more enjoyable had it been arranged a little differently.

The Sunday Gleaner was able to consult with two professionals in the field of music, and all agreed that starting the concert with three oboe pieces and ending with two clarinet pieces was not a good idea, especially when three powerful vocal presentations were sandwiched in between.

Award-winning choir

And since variety is a most desirable element in concerts, it would have been better not to have the performers present in blocks.

For example, in the first half the items came in a three-four-four format; and in the second half, the most rousing of the presenters, the award-winning choir Nexus, had five songs in their block.

Greater variety could, certainly, have been teased out of a programme with six sets of performers and 18 individual items. There may be no "perfect" arrangement for the pieces, but without doubt, starting the concert with an oboe playing the adagio (slow) movement of Tomaso Albinoni's Oboe Concerto No. 3 in B flat major, Op 7 was a bad idea.

The short, simple piece made the player, Althea Neblett, appear a beginner - especially when compared to the totally professional playing by Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts School of Music director Roger Williams who gave accompaniment on piano. Happily, she showed greater skill in her other two pieces - the lively gratsioso movement of Georg P. Telemann's Oboe Concerto in D major and Astor Piazzolla's gentle Oblivion in C minor.

The witty, super suave emcee, Michael Anthony Cuffe, commented on "the look of serenity" on the faces of the audience as we listened to the three pieces. He might have meant we seemed to be falling asleep, but whether "serenity" or "sleep," the feeling was shaken off by the second set of performers, the Kingston College Chapel Choir.

This renowned choir, which recently completed an album, Songs of Praise, featuring selections from composers and arrangers, including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Noel Dexter and Audley Davidson, was conducted by the last named. Livingston Burnett accompanied them on piano.

Dressed in the school's colours, purple and white, the 30-plus boys and young men lived up to the choir's decades-old reputation as, with harmony, feeling, fine tonal quality and excellent diction, they delivered a varied selection of songs. They were Salvation is Created (Tschesnokoff), For the Beauty of the Earth (Rutter), Poor Man Lazrus (Hairston) and Non Nobis Domine (Quilter).

Beautifully sung

The serenely smiling soprano Lori Burnett, a lecturer at the School of Music, closed the first half of the concert with a beautifully sung quartet of songs - Richard Strauss' Zueingnung, an aria from Mozart's opera Cosi fanTutte, another from Puccini's La Rondine and, finally, the popular love song, This is my Beloved, from the Wright and Forrest musical, Kismet.

The concert's second half started with the very competent playing of Johannes Brahams' evocative, multi-layered Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79, No 1 by pianist Warren McPherson.

He has demonstrated that it's possible, albeit unusual, to begin playing the piano at the ripe old age of 18 and still be outstanding. He graduated from the School of Music at the top of his class in 2008, got a distinction in the Conservatory of Canada piano exam in 2007-08 and won a three-year scholarship to complete his degree at the University of Southern Maine.

Nexus, which followed McPherson, has also shone abroad.

Formed 10 years ago by Hugh Douse, the choir won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals at the 5th World Choir Games in Graz, Austria, in 2008, placing Jamaica 14th of 96 countries with a total of 114 choirs. The Nexus/CHASE Jamaica Music Tour, due to start shortly, will see the choir conducting workshops in choral techniques around the island.

Conducted by Douse, and with Burnett on piano, the high-energy choir put lots of emotion into their singing of Rossini's I Will Give Thanks Unto Thee, Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Delivering, the spiritual Motherless Child, cleverly harmonised with Gershwin's Summer Time and the spiritual Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit. The set culminated with a humorous arrangement by Douse and Nexus of Nobody Canna Cross It, the YouTube hit, created by a Jamaican university student from a television newscast.

The final set for the evening saw Rafael Salazar (clarinet) teaming up with Williams (piano) to play, exquisitely, the lively Vals Venezolano (Paquito D'Rivera) and the beautiful Solo de Concours (Messager). The two often play together and never fail to please.

Still, the concert would have had a stronger climax had Nexus' Nobody Canna Cross It ended the presentation.