This afternoon was the first concert of the season for the Chorale, Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ. It's the only full-length work we've ever done in French in my tenure, and when we did it last in 1991 or so Allen swore we'd never do another piece in French again. But I guess he still kept his word, because we didn't do another one, we did the same one again. The chorus had enough people this time familiar with the work that that part went reasonably well, although I think he worked us harder in '91, and since there really isn't a whole lot of choral singing, you end up going over the same sections a million times in rehearsal.



Unfortunately the orchestra doesn't get the same luxury, and this was definitely a concert that could have benefited from a little extra time with the orchestra beforehand. The orchestration has a lot of layers to it, there's a fair amount of recitative that is always hard to keep together, and Allen sometimes had to stop conducting and just play traffic cop. The cellos lost their way at one point and like to never got caught up. Some spots the timing was ragged between soloists and orchestra, with different parties at fault each time. Allen kept up with everything to an amazing degree, but I think sometimes even he was surpised by which instruments came in when he'd give a particular downbeat. Because he doesn't know this piece inside out like most of the standard rep, I think the performance comes off a little conservative, and definitely a little on the slow side. He did let loose in the men's chorus in the first half, which we sang faster than we'd ever rehearsed, but it all stuck together well enough. The "O mon ame" at the end kept the pitch up a lot better than in '91, and the audience seemed enthusiastic at the end, but its hard to know without hearing the recording what the overall effect really was. The saddest thing was that Sanders was about half full, between the weather and competition from a hundred other events and the fact that this piece doesn't have the warhorse status that it deserves. There are really some great bits and a ton of catchy tunes. I'm tempted to hear the BSO do it in January just for comparison, since they're casting a different person for each solo part, plus of course an orchestra about three times the size of ours. TFC doesn't get to sing in French much, either, so I wouldn't expect there to be much difference there.



This concert by itself isn't enough to pass judgment on the current state of the Chorale and whether it's better or worse than it was before. Certainly the acapella section at the end came together and stayed in tune much easier than it did before, and the French as I say was less of an impediment. In '91 we were still in the era of a lot of baritones doubling tenor in the more exposed sections, so that of couse has improved as well. We even sang this time in a mixed arrangement, where I doubt we did that before. Now it's a few weeks off since I'm not doing the Christmas concert, and then back for Carmina for the February concert. That should really show off the Chorale's strengths, and hopefully there will be a full audience to hear it.