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You are here: Home Film & Arts Reviews Philadelphia Orchestra & Philadelphia Symphonic Choir Create an Evening of Aural Beauty

Philadelphia Orchestra & Philadelphia Symphonic Choir Create an Evening of Aural Beauty

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Monday, 25 April 2022 13:01
Written by Jack Angstreich

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts. Photo by Pete Checchia

At Carnegie Hall on the evening of Friday, April 8th, I was privileged to attend a magnificent concert presented by the outstanding musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra under the extraordinary direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and featuring also the terrific Philadelphia Symphonic Choir led by Amanda Quist, in a thrilling performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s incomparable Missa solemnis, which served as an exquisite coda to the ensemble’s superb cycle this season of the composer’s complete symphonies. A slate of impressive soloists added immeasurably to the success of the event—soprano, Jennifer Rowley; mezzo-soprano, Karen Cargill; tenor, Rodrick Dixon; and bass-baritone, Eric Owens—I was especially enthralled by Rowley and Cargill.

The opening of the Kyrie conveys a religious affirmation over and above its imprecatory character but becomes more impassioned with the “Christe eleison”—this tendency informs the concluding section of the movement which ends quietly. The beginning of the ensuing Gloria is appropriately exultant but transforms into something less declamatory with the “Gratias agimus tibi,” and builds to an even more triumphant conclusion in the “Gloria in excelsis Deo”—it’s splendorous and almost baroque in its complexities in the fugue-like passages.
 
The Credo that follows also is initially fervent but turns more introspective with the “Et incarnatus est” but it regains its celebratory dynamism in the “Et resurrexit”; the movement reaches its apotheosis with its fugue-like section, the “Et vitam venturi.” The start of the Sanctus is more subdued but abruptly intensifies; the relatively quiet, instrumental “Praeludium” ushers in the irenic Benedictus. And finally, the opening of the Agnus Dei is the most plaintive sequence in the work but unexpectedly acquires a martial character before achieving its most serene expression. The artists received an enthusiastic ovation.

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