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October 14, 2003 - Louisville Bach Society
Honest beauty informs 'Creation'

By ANDREW ADLER •
aadler@courier-journal.com
Courier-Journal Critic

After four decades of leading the Louisville Bach Society, there are few places co-founder Melvin Dickinson fears to tread. Say what you will about his deliberate way with large-scale repertoire from the Baroque and Classical periods, Dickinson can never be accused of applying less than scrupulous attention to works that demand at least as much.

This certainly applies to Haydn's oratorio "Die Schopfung" ("The Creation"), which the Bach Society revisited Sunday afternoon at St. Bonifice Catholic Church. One was tempted, just as Haydn himself was in the late18th century, to draw immediate links between his oratorio and Handel's "Messiah" — itself a touchstone of many a Bach Society season. Dickinson's chorus and orchestra have typically warmed to these broad narrative assignments, and so it was on Sunday.

Listeners might well have imagined performances that were more overtly dramatic, or wondered whether a somewhat larger orchestra would have better balanced the sizable chorus on hand at St. Bonifice. Yet in his customary centrist fashion, Dickinson found what was most important about "The Creation": its honest, even naïve transference of Biblical ideology to musical reality.

"Messiah" is a superior story and, I must concede, a superior score in its sure grasp of momentum from one section to the next. But "The Creation" offers distinctive pleasures of its own, perhaps the keenest being Haydn's extraordinary projection of his orchestral forces into the total mix of sound.

Despite the modest size of the Bach Society orchestra, that sensation was often appropriately in the foreground of Sunday's account. Haydn was a master of the great symphonic mass, and his affections clearly extended to the oratorio arena.

From a seat up in St. Boniface's organ loft, the Society's instrumental contingent made a substantial, idiomatic impression. Though you might have smiled a bit at Haydn's notion of primordial chaos — his harmonic excursions today seem rather quaint — the sure hand of his orchestral writing was evident throughout Dickinson's performance.

Of course, "The Creation" is fundamentally about singing. The Bach Society chorus provided an early, potent moment of glory, partnering stage organ and brass with a mighty crescendo at the coupled phrases, "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." All during the afternoon, the choristers responded reverently, whether confirming God's encompassing acts of fashioning heaven and earth, plants and animals, or praising the Almighty alongside the very politically incorrect Adam and Eve.

Among Sunday's vocal soloists, tenor Daniel Weeks' Uriel, bass Alexander Redden's Raphael and Adam plus Mary Wilson Redden's Gabriel and Eve handled taxing assignments with skill and discerning taste. Haydn was inordinately fond of word-painting in "The Creation" — and the melding of vocal with instrumental lines in such junctures as Gabriel's aria opening Part Two bubbled up nicely.

Ultimately, "The Creation" is as much about listeners' faith in Haydn's vast musical scheme as it is about the composer's faith in Christian doctrine. Add to that Dickinson's belief in the abilities of the Louisville Bach Society, and you have a pretty convincing testament to the power of choral music in a sacred space.

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April 28, 2003 - Louisville Bach Society with Margaret Dickinson
Organ fans grateful for Dickinson's rare recital

By ANDREW ADLER
aadler@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Margaret Dickinson's organ recitals have become fewer and fewer in recent years, so fans of this exceptional musician must be doubly grateful anytime she decides to place herself in the foreground of the concert arena.

Yesterday was one of those rare instances, with Dickinson collaborating with husband Melvin Dickinson and the Louisville Bach Society - which they established 39 years ago. While the experience wasn't quite up to the rush one feels when Margaret Dickinson tears into something like a Rheinberger organ sonata, the concert at St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Louisville satisfied to a reasonable degree. For now, anyway, that would have to do.

The performances were the last of the Society's 2002-03 schedule, a shrewd blending of Bach, Buxtehude and Kodaly. Instead of the customary orchestra, there was a cellist and double-bassist to fill in some of the bottom lines, and Dickinson playing the church's 51-rank Schoenstein organ.

I can't say that this particular instrument excites me terribly, but it has the attributes of tonal directness and proportional balance that work well when accompanying a large choir. It speaks clearly into the sanctuary, with more immediate impact from the side galleries than from further out into the sanctuary, though I ended up preferring to hear Kodaly's "Laudes Organi " from a seat at the center of the balcony.

Billed as a Kentucky premiere, the "Laudes Organi " was composed for a 1966 meeting of the American Guild of Organists. It's curiously endearing, comprising a concentrated mixed choral part introduced and interspersed by extended organ solos, with a Latin text that begins: "Listen to the chorus of the pipes, the musical instrument of modern artists, a paragon of melody which plays sweetly and sings full of praise... "

Dickinson played with appropriate thrustfulness, choosing registrations that suggested the weight of the music without over-thickening the textures. The Society chorus reveled in Kodaly's declamatory style, weaving one line into another while maintaining essential poise.

Earlier in the afternoon the singers gave a deft, often luscious account of the composer's best-known choral piece, the 1942 "Missa Brevis, " in which the sopranos coped fearlessly with some punishing intonational challenges high above the staff. Buxtehude's lovely, austere "Missa Alla Brevis " and Bach's motet "Komm, Jesu, Komm " were each idiomatically managed. And on her own in the composer's Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 545, Dickinson once more was in her ever-glorious element.

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Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor

By George R. Hubbard

Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor -- a work of such scope and grandeur that one's descriptive vocabulary seems inadequate -- is surely the composer's vision of the throne of God.

Yesterday, in Saint Agnes Catholic Church, the Louisville Bach Society presented this masterpiece for the 14th time. Conductor Melvin Dickinson has brought many works to the local concert scene, yet none is more enduring or eagerly awaited than this. A friend said that he could listen to this work every day. I'm not sure I could; its emotional content is too great and its intellectual demands too taxing.

The opening "Kyrie" set the tone for the afternoon. Great chunks of choral sound -- like the building blocks of creation -- were shaped and welded under Dickinson's sure control into a monumental sonic structure. The final "Dona nobis pacem," nearly 2 1/2 hours later, had the same surety and conviction.

The Bach Society chorus always sings with precision and finesse. Yesterday they also sang from the heart. "Sanctus" was a great wash of sound soaring through the church as if it were the vaults of heaven. "Qui tollis peccata mundi" was a masterpiece of controlled tension; "Crucifixus" a carefully measured expression of grief.

Soprano soloist Kathleen Regneri sang with dazzling purity and clarity. Her assignments were many -- she sang not only the soloist role, but also as part of the concertato ensemble. Her "Laudamus te" had an almost magical effect. Tenor Stanley Cornett and flautist Nancy Blanford joined here on "Domine Deus" for some of the finest baroque ensemble work in this listener's memory. The articulation and ornamentation were a total joy.

Messo-soprano Antoinette Hardin brought her accustomed elegance and sumptuousness of sound to the introspective aria, "Qui sedes ad dextram Patris." Her duets with Regneri, "Christe eleison" and "Et in unum Dominum," made one wish for an entire concert by these two artists.

David Berger, the bass soloist, soldiered manfully through his two arias, "Quoniam tu solus sanctus" and "Et in Spiritum sanctum," but in neither did he manage more than a suggestion of their greatness. In the first he simply could not be heard in the lower range. Stephen Causey was brilliant in the treacherous hunting horn solo in this aria.

Daniel McAnich and Edward Hinson played the haunting oboe d'amore duet in Berger's second aria. Their plangent sound, twining above David Horn's subtly nuanced bassoon continuo, was one of the high points of the performance.

Dickinson wisely chose to use a small concertato group of singers as a foil for the full chorus. Their more focused sound provided a dance-like lightness, particularly in "Gloria in excelsis Deo," "Cum sancto Spiritu" and "Et resurrexit tertia die." Concertato bass Lynn Thompson's "Et iterum venturus" was graceful and elegant.
A splendid closing for the season.

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Summer, 1994, The Courier Journal

By Andrew Adler

The Louisville Bach Society turned its annual summertime concert into an example of significant community involvement. Performing yesterday at the Broadway Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in the city West End, the ensemble combined art and outreach in a way that other groups would do well to emulate.

Music Director Melvin Dickinson led varied programs, moving from customary Baroque and Classical works to not-so-typical psalm settings. He selected two movements from J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 18 and the complete Cantata No. 106, interpreted evenly by a moderately sized chorus and small orchestra, appropriate to the intimate church space.

Unlike most concert halls, and even many larger churches, here there was little sense of separation between musicians and listeners. The singers were arranged in a broad semicircle behind the instrumentalists, just a few steps from adjacent pews. Despite a somewhat dry acoustic, the choir's sound had desirable weight and tonal refinement. Occasional soprano stridency above the staff didn't detract from the pleasing focus of energies.

Two of the best performances were of works by contemporary composers. Society alumnus Chester Alwes' unaccompanied setting of the 23rd Psalm, occupying calm harmonic waters, was lovingly rendered: devotional though exact in attack. It was considerably more absorbing, in fact, than Gottfried Homilius' version of "The Lord's Prayer" and Antonio Caldara's "Regina coell," neither of which elicited any sort of interpretive fire.

Better results were evident in a pair of motets by Hans Friedrich Micheelsen, who was active for much of the 20th century (the short chorale was especially satisfying). A concise Haydn mass (F Major, Hob. XXII:I) demonstrated that the 16-yr-old Franz Joseph had studied his models earnestly but was yet to establish genuine creative independence within the genre. Sopranos Mary Delia Wilson and Laura Lea Duckworth rendered the solo parts ardently, pushing perhaps a bit more than they ought to.

Kathleen Regneri was her ever-steady self in the soprano aria "My soul's true treasure is God's word" from the early Cantata No. 18. Vocal soloists alto Michele Wiggins, tenors Harvey Turner and Stephen Spears, and bass Alex Redden participated in the Cantata No. 106, which Dickinson led in an alert, unfussy performance.

In remarks, church trustee and Louisville Urban League President Ben Richmond spoke of the "historic" nature of the Bach Society's visit. A small bit of history, maybe, but in its spirit and aspiration, vitally refreshing. One hopes that the Society -- as the Louisville Orchestra does in its Classical Roots Series -- makes such events a regular component of its overall mission.

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