1 Photo
The great choral conductor Robert Shaw once said, “Music is too important to leave to the professionals.” Filled with that sense of the importance of music, non-professional choral groups have sprung up all over the world, imbued with the true spirit of the amateur, a word that derives from the French for “one who loves.”The East End’s own Choral Society of the Hamptons this year celebrates its 70th anniversary by commissioning a new work by the noted composer Victoria Bond, who has a summer home in East Hampton. The work is called “The Reluctant Moses” and consists of an exchange between Moses and God, who speaks to Moses out of a burning bush.
The members of the chorus come from all over the East End. They come from all walks of life, but have in common a profound love of choral music. The Choral Society has twice toured Europe and has sung at Lincoln Center, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting.
It has been conducted by the late Hugh Ross, the late Dick Vogt, John Daly Goodwin, Walter Klauss, Jesse Mark Peckham, Jennifer Miceli, and the late Gilbert Kaplan, the astonishing autodidact who taught himself to conduct Mahler’s Second Symphony. Another notable who performed with the Choral Society was Dave Brubeck. The late Lee Davis, who frequently reviewed the Choral Society performances for The Southampton Press, said, “The Choral Society of the Hamptons is well and rightly noted for its astonishing professionalism. A local group of volunteer singers, they, through repeated concerts, accompanied by professional orchestras, have never failed to either thrill or astound by their virtuosity, purity and energy.”
The current musical director and principal conductor is Mark Mangini, who has been at the helm of the Choral Society for 13 years and has added considerable polish and depth to its performances and breadth to its repertoire.
Mr. Mangini also conducts the Greenwich Village Chamber Singers, which has performed with the Choral Society several times, most notably in the revival of Lukas Foss’s secular cantata “The Prairie.” He is also on the faculty of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn.
Mr. Mangini first heard the music of Victoria Bond at a performance of music by women composers at the Southampton Cultural Center. In an interview he said, “I found her work to be conservative and tonal. She would write a piece that people would like, that would be accessible and that an amateur chorus could sing.” He continued, “She is also a local figure and well known, not only for her music, but for the pre-opera lectures she has given at Guild Hall.”
Ms. Bond is both a conductor and composer. She came to music early. Her mother was a piano prodigy and her father, besides being a doctor, was an operatic bass, who sang solo roles with the New York City Opera. He sang the part of Leporello in “Don Giovanni,” and also that of Boris in “Boris Godunov.” Ms. Bond sang in the City Opera’s Children’s Chorus. She noted in an interview, “I got my first Social Security card at the age of 7 or 8.”
She originally intended to be a pianist and studied with the legendary Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes School of Music. She then applied to Juilliard, where she was accepted and ultimately became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in conducting from the conservatory. Her composition teachers included Ingolf Dahl and Roger Sessions and her conducting teachers included James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Herbert Blomstedt.
“Long before Mark approached me,” she said in a phone interview, “I had the idea of this piece. I think of the work as a tribute to my father, a bass, and my grandfather, a double bass player who was brought to this country by Leopold Stokowski.”
The story of “The Reluctant Moses” is taken from the Book of Exodus in what Jews refer to as the Torah and Christians refer to as the Old Testament. The work is a profound dialogue between Moses and God. The role of Moses is sung by the bass Joseph Charles Beutel. He is accompanied on the double bass by John Feeney. The double bass gives the voice of Moses “greater gravitas,” Ms. Bond writes in a program note. The chorus sings the role of God, not one of its accustomed roles.
God gives Moses the command to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Moses tells God that he is not a leader and not an orator. No one would believe that God has given him this task. Please send someone more capable, he tells God, someone more believable.
“We think of Moses as a leader and as being powerful,” Ms. Bond said, “but when he spoke to God in the burning bush he was vulnerable and didn’t think that he could do the things that God asked him to do.
“We all,” she continued, “have moments when we don’t feel up to the task we are assigned.”
Mr. Mangini said, “The vocal writing is very imaginatively handled. There are coloristic effects that add to the mystery. In the string writing we hear the crackling fiery shrubbery. When Moses speaks there is a kind of ‘halo’ of sound created by the strings, much like when Jesus speaks in the ‘St. Matthew Passion.’ With a classical orchestra and a few percussion instruments, Victoria’s representations in music of the divine are really quite compelling and remarkable.”
“The crowning moment in the piece,” she said, “is the final fugue.”
In a program note, Ms. Bond writes, “As I was composing the work, a voice in my head said, ‘You must end the work with a fugue using the Ten Commandments.’ I was stunned. Before I could say ‘impossible’ I realized that this actualized the whole point of my work and was the challenge that I needed to confront and accomplish.”
Ms. Bond’s “Reluctant Moses” is joined on the program by Beethoven’s “Mass in C Major,” a breakthrough work that was not readily appreciated when it was first performed, but is now considered to be one of the great choral works of all time.
The performance will be on Saturday, June 25, at 7 p.m. at the Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor. There will be a pre-concert lecture by Victoria Bond at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30, or $35 at the door. For youth 18 and under, tickets are $10, or $15 at the door. Preferred seating is $75. Call 631-204-9402 or visit choralsocietyofthehamptons.org. Immediately after the concert, the society will host a benefit wine and dessert reception in a tent on the lawn, where the audience can meet the soloists, conductor, and composer. Admission is $50 in advance, or $60 at the door.
on Jun 14, 2016