Concert puts cathedral's acoustics to good use

Karen P. Thomas, the astute artistic director of Seattle Pro Musica, has a particular gift of programming interesting and often compelling programs, of which this weekend's pair of concerts at St. James Cathedral are one example.

MUSIC REVIEW

SEATTLE PRO MUSICA

WHEN: Saturday night

WHERE: St. James Cathedral

Programs that center on themes of some sort are the fashion, but they frequently seem contrived. Thomas' don't. They catch the eye and sustain themselves at the performance.

Saturday night, a near-capacity audience heard a fascinating and often telling concert titled "Music of the Spheres: Celestial Music for the Cathedral." I can't imagine a better setting than the Catholic cathedral on First Hill.

Not only is it remarkably beautiful, it possesses superb acoustics. Thomas took full advantage of both.

The concert was exceptionally handsome in concept and shape.

Thomas wrote an intelligent and coherent preface to her theme in the program, quoting along the way the ancient Greeks, both Plato and Pythagoras; early Christian thinkers such as Clement of Alexandria and Thomas Aquinas; and 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

After that introduction, it was a good thing the music and music-making turned out so well.

Three works of Hildegard von Bingen, sung a cappella in the center of the nave, opened the concert. One could not have asked for a more sublime beginning. As chorus members moved about, St. James' organist Joseph Adam played a rather divine "Chant de paix," composed by 20th-century French composer Jean Langlais, rather divinely.

To represent the recent past, Frank Ferko and Meredith Monk contributed two pieces, superbly done by the chorus.

There were also Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams and C.H.H. Parry, well-done, but not as interesting.

Handel's "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" concluded the concert.

The singing was at a high level throughout, including soprano Lisa Cardwell Ponten and tenor Samuel J. Ludwig Rodarte. So was the small orchestra.

P-I music critic R.M. Campbell can be reached at 206-448-8396 or rmcampbell@seattlepi.com.

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