Large chorus delivers
Mozart-Moran

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By Ruth O. Bingham
Special to the Star-Bulletin

The week-long Sixth Hawaii International Choral Festival, sponsored by the Oahu Choral Society, culminated in Saturday night's performance of Mozart's Mass in C Minor ("The Great") and Robert Moran's "Agnus Dei" and Ite "Missa Est."

Mozart never completed his C Minor Mass, which made performing it difficult. In a novel solution devised in the early 1990s, the Philadelphia Mendelssohn Club commissioned Robert Moran, current composer-in-residence for the festival, to set the two missing movements, not in an attempt to "complete" Mozart's work, but to complement it in performance.

Moran's movements, stylistically quite different from Mozart's, are nonetheless wonderful pieces, the "Agnus Dei" peaceful, with slowly shifting harmonies, and the "Missa Est," a multimetric rollicking finale.

For both Mozart and Moran, the festival used large forces, including the Honolulu Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony and Festival Choruses, and four soloists, all conducted by Karen Kennedy, who holds directorships at the University of Hawaii, with the Honolulu Symphony and for the choral festivals.

The pared-down orchestra, perhaps short on rehearsal time, played without their usual finesse, struggling with intonation and ensemble. Oboist Scott Janusch, however, shone throughout, and he, along with flutist Susan McGinn and bassoonist Paul Barrett, created the finest orchestral moment in the "Et incarnatus est" section of the Credo.

The choruses, on the other hand, sang surprisingly well, considering they numbered well over 150 and combined singers from more than 10 groups. Their powerful, carefully balanced entrances in "Jesu Christe" of Gloria and in Sanctus were especially effective.

Lyric soprano Alicia Berneche contributed a sweetly warm tone, and mezzo-soprano Linda Maguire, technical agility. Tenor Les Ceballos entered tentatively but then relaxed into the ensembles, and bass-baritone Burr Cochran Phillips, who had the least prominent part, added a firm bass line.

The whole was held together admirably by Kennedy, a fine choral conductor expanding into conducting large, mixed forces.

In addition to this concert and its rehearsals, the festival included a composers' workshop, a vocal master class, choral adjudications, a concert preview by Moran and courses on choral leadership and Hawaiian music, dance and language.

Next year's Choral Festival will be held March 28 through April 4 and will feature Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."

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