October, 2005

The French Connection

Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo Really Connects with Audience
Keith Kreitman, San Mateo County Times

For 38 years under founding music director Galen Marshall, the Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo racked up honors and recognition for distinguished, serious sacred and secular music.

In the past four years, his successor, Bryan Baker, has added measures of humor and touches of whimsy to the programming that make it more approachable.

The season opener Saturday at the Congregational Church of San Mateo, reflected that. It concentrated on the "French connection" -- the music of French composers and its influence upon American composers.

Every conductor eventually puts his stamp on an organization, and in the case of Masterworks it is the remarkable dynamic control without loss of pitch and intonation throughout the entire vocal range, capped by rich interpretations of the texts.

Of all the most famed requiems (sung in Latin, of course), the one by Gabriel Faure is the least somber, most beautifully scored and upbeat. It's graceful and lyrical in character, and even a non-believer can bask in its brightness.

It featured three outstanding performers: guest soloists Shawnette Sulker, soprano; baritone Kenneth Goodson; and in one section, Masterworks tenor Karen Myers.

The whimsy commenced in the second half of the program with a four-handed piano version of a piece by the same composer, "Kitty Valse" (from the "Dolly Suite").

Baker interacts easily with the audience, so it didn't surprise when he sat alone at the piano, with Goodson singing "Le Paon" (from "Histoires Naturelles"), about an egotistical peacock, by another French great, Maurice Ravel.

This was followed with a piano piece by Ravel's rival Claude Debussy, the charming "Golliwog's Cakewalk" from "The Children's Corner" and an early work by French-schooled Aaron Copland, the whimsical "Scherzo Humoresque: The Cat and the Mouse."

The choir reentered and the program marched on to conclusion with "J'entends le moulin" ("I [hear] the windmill"), by Quebec-born Donald Patriquin, and American-born Leonard Bernstein's "French Choruses" (from "The Lark") and "Glitter and Be Gay" from his musical/opera "Candide." The program finished with American Morten Lauridsen's "Dirait On" (from "Les Chansons des Roses").

If it is possible for there to be a show-stopper in a chorale concert, it was Sulker. After some impressive dramatic singing in the conventional soprano range in the "Requiem," she surprised with a comedic flight of fancy into the vocal stratosphere in the "Glitter and Be Gay."

This native of Guyana held the audience breathless. I don't believe I have ever heard a more beautiful, more controlled or better-placed coloratura voice. She's a real, and confident, charmer.

Anyone who says that only musicals have the power to draw audiences in hasn't heard the Masterworks Chorale lately.

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