Things to do in Sacramento

By Edward Ortiz
eortiz@sacbee.com

The challenge of choral holiday concert is offering up a tasteful mix of passionate singing that also brings with it a smart dose of restraint.

Yet the 12-member Vox Musica has handled the challenge well over the last four seasons of its holiday concerts. Although not their most even outing, the ensemble again proved themselves with an interesting program on Saturday evening at Sacramento's St. John's Lutheran Church.

Under the direction of Daniel Paulson, the music of the 20th century and contemporary arrangements of older works bloomed dramatically and expansively.

The best performances of the evening were those works written by composers born in the second half of the 20th century, all of them living. That is not a bad thing, given that audiences are growing keen on new music - especially young audiences.

The ensemble breathed refreshing life into three contemporary arrangements of a 15th-century hymn "Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen." In the first, arranged by Canadian Stephen Smith, a haunting ostinato added depth to multilayered music.

Paulson's tasteful arrangement of "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming," was lushly conceived, its dissonant textures adding much shadow to the bright singing. On the third, "Det Ar En Ros Utsprungen," arranged by Swede Marten Jansson, a metronomic scheme of utterances conjured up the musical image of ringing bells, with these playing out against some of the clearest singing of the evening.

The ensemble showed of their ability to transition from lower to higher notes with subtle deftness in contemporary composer Patricia Van Ness' "Archangelus, Gabriel Praedicator." This piece, one of the most poetic on the program, is a patently neo-romantic one. It begins with pensive music whose drama increases slowly.

With "Snow," from 2005, by Chicagoan Mark Nowakowski, Vox Musica showed off the group's personality in a work that is all about mood and ambience. Here Paulson coaxed a multi-layered sound from the singers. This gave a transcendent feel to the music, whose mysterious dimensions were delicately revealed - like what is given in the blue silence after a large snowfall.

The evening's music was parsed out in chronological order with the "O Virdissima Virga" chant by Hildegard von Bingen and the Renaissance motet "Orante Sancta Lucia" by Alonso De Tejeda beginning the concert. The chorus offered a journeyman's approach on both, with the singers sounding less than cohesive, and tonally tentative in parts.

But it more than redeemed itself when it gave a bright and painterly performance of Magister Perotin's "Alleluya."

In this work, which was written at the turn of the 13th century, the music is given over to three voices, one singing lengthy notes, the other two singing faster, more pointed music. It was smartly performed and sounded modern - which is saying a lot since it was born of a composer who toiled so long ago.

Call Edward Ortiz at (916) 321-1071.