The music refuses to die. While the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra is no longer with us, its associate chorus led by Roger Melone is most assuredly thriving as proved by its concert in the Journal Theatre at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Oct. 23.
The New Mexico Symphonic Chorus stands in good shape having recently received a propitious and generous gift of the entire NMSO choral library from benefactress Suzanne Hanson Poole. But the organization will need and certainly deserves community support in the coming seasons. The centerpiece of the inaugural program was Mozart’s “Requiem,” preceded by two of the “Coronation Anthems” by Handel. Written in 1727, the Anthems brought George II to the throne. To my mind this music embodies the sound of the British Empire at its height — the public side that is. (Like all empires its private doings were something quite different). But here we have all the pomp and glory one of the greatest composers could conceive. It almost makes one a believer, and that was fully the intention. “Zadok the Priest,” the first of the two anthems, began quietly almost unobtrusively with gentle repeated chords in the orchestra until the chorus, with all the power it could muster, broke forth into stentorian exclamation. Never was Handel more clearly the master at achieving the most from the least. The “King Shall Rejoice,” gilded with three blazing trumpets (Tony Sadlon, Greg Heltman, Laura Saylor), featured a rhapsodic middle section full of melismas and suspensions, followed by a most effective double fugue. Mozart left his “Requiem” an unfinished torso, to be completed by his student Sussmayr. From the very first performance there were questions as to how much he actually finished or even sketched. Everyone has a theory (some more intelligent than others), but short of cloning a mature Mozart, no one will ever really know. Regardless, it remains the greatest setting of the text. Its use in movies, TV, even ads, (maddeningly for many of us) is now iconic. What is it that makes one set of notes an immortal melody, while another even quite similar set is easily dismissed? Very likely Mozart himself couldn’t answer that question, yet he wrote such hauntingly persistent groups of notes in his “Requiem.” There is a quality about the melodies that far transcends the mere notes, as few works do. Something quite mystical pervades the music. Melone’s reading of the “Requiem” was outgoing, even aggressive in style, almost as extrovert as the Handel anthems. He left barely a pause between movements. The energy of the “Kyrie,” for example, continued immediately into the “Dies Irae.” Characterized by clear, clean lines and precise entrances and exits, the chorus was exceptionally demonstrative in the exuberant “Rex tremendae,” and later the “Confutatis” section (so meticulously dissected in the film Amadeus). Baritone Stephen Lewis was the most impressive of the four vocal soloists, particularly in duet with the trombone (Byron Herrington) in the Tuba mirum section. The New Mexico Symphonic Chorus continues with two more concerts this season, next performing Honneger’s oratorio “King David” in January.
