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The Pittsburgh Concert Chorale’s tour of Italy created memories for people on both sides of the Atlantic, writes KATIE DOYLE
Sacred music, sacred places: The Pittsburgh Concert Chorale’s tour of Italy created memories for people on both sides of the Atlantic,
My summer vacation could have been a mind- and bodynumbing visit to extraordinary places or it could have been a soul- and spirit-filled experience of extraordinary music in extraordinary places. It turned out to be the latter.
I tagged along on the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale’s tour of Italy in July. Countless tourists have brains overloaded with images. But I also have a soundtrack of PCC’s performances running through my head.
Founded by Clark Bedford 33 years ago, PCC is more than 100 singers strong. Thirty-eight singers made this tour, and they were joined by 20 spouses, siblings, children and friends. My husband, Jack, joined the tenor section five years ago. The conductor is Susan Medley. (What an apt name!) David Billings is the accompanist.
Susan chose songs appropriate for the churches where PCC would sing: all sacred works, many by 16th- and 17th-century Italian composers (Viadana; Monteverdi; Gabrieli, both uncle and nephew; de Rore; Pitoni; Palestrina), plus a 19th-century Italian (Rossini) and a handful of mostly 20th-century American composers.
She chose the Italian pieces for the singers, so that they could have the experience of singing the music in the spaces for which the pieces had been written, and she chose the American pieces for the Italian audiences because European audiences love hearing uniquely American musical styles like spirituals and folk songs.
This trip included performances in Rome, Florence, Ravenna and Venice. The chorus expected folks to wander into a performance and soon wander out. Yes, that happened — but it also happened that folks stayed through to the end, calling for an encore and then another. The singers marveled at the hotel clerk who couldn’t believe they weren’t paid. I, in the category of groupie, went early, found a good seat in the middle of the church and waited for PCC’s sound to wash over me.
The singers appreciated the response of their audiences. More than once, Susan was hugged by listeners with tears in their eyes. Sometimes PCC members faced a line of well-wishers eager to shake their hands. A woman from Parma asked if they could please sing at the Parma Opera House. Knowing that European churches host many visiting choirs, the PCC was pleased to note when priests at the host church commented on the program.
The PCC didn’t limit its singing to its concerts. A Belgian tourist was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” (four-part harmony with a descant!) at breakfast in Ravenna. Two members of our group likewise were regaled as we waited in one of Ferrara’s parks for our bus. A boat ride back to the hotel in Venice included “Moonlight Bay” and “That’s Amore.” I often heard snippets of “Funiculi, Funicula.” Other guests at our hotel in Rome got a preview of that evening’s performance as the PCC rehearsed in one of the meeting rooms downstairs.
When the PCC first decided to tour Italy, Ken Limmer (one of Jack’s fellow tenors) and his fiancee, Denise Calkins, knew it would be the perfect venue for their wedding. Quite a few of our group joined Ken and Denise one morning at a small lake in Rome’s Villa Borghese park. With the lake and a classical Greek gazebo in the background, they recited their vows. Ken, accompanied by a quartet of PCC singers, then sang “O Sole Mio” to his bride.
Observing it all, one of the tour’s young single ladies knows that any prospective husband of hers will have a tough act to follow! Several Romans joined us, amid their own Sunday rowing, jogging or ambling. I enjoyed the small family that rowed to the best vantage point and anchored to watch it all. Romantic — yes!
The first concert was at San Marcello al Corso in Rome. There were opening-night jitters, and several singers missed the pre-concert rehearsal as the address they were given for the church was incorrect. I had heard a number of the pieces at PCC’s concert in March and thought I knew what to expect. Ha! Most of these works were written not with modern suburban churches in mind but rather with vast stone expanses. Sung in these spaces, these works were ethereal.
At Santa Trinita in Florence, PCC sang its second concert. It was the same lineup of pieces as before but, given this church’s acoustics, the sound was different. I luxuriated in the ocean of PCC’s sound enveloping me. Some found fault that the acoustics muddied the American spirituals. Of course they did: The architects of Santa Trinita in the late Middle Ages knew only medieval chants and never expected anything like Moses Hogan’s “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord.”
PCC’s third concert was at the Basilica of San Francesco in Ravenna. Looking at its beauty, I was surprised it is not included with the eight other Christian monuments in Ravenna as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Dating to the Middle Ages, it still has many of its original mosaics. Much of Ravenna is slowly sinking, including San Francesco. Its crypt has more than a foot of ground water; given its mosaic walls and floors and the goldfish added by the staff, it appears as a holy wading pool.
The tomb of the poet Dante, who lived from 1265 to 1321, is beside San Francesco. Because his bones have been moved several times in recent centuries, PCC joked that its efforts would help him rest in peace. Then the chorus arranged itself around the crypt’s entrance and sang one of its best concerts ever. Many tourists remember the goldfish and the crypt; I remember them with Viadana’s “Exsultate justi” in my ears.
Singing at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice was a privilege the PCC will always cherish. Its staff reviewed the audition tape that Susan sent and extended an invitation for the chorale to sing four pieces at one of Sunday’s Masses. Musicians who have performed at religious services often report that it’s nothing like performing in recital or concert. This PCC performance proved the same, the music filling every corner of that vast space. I’ve attended hundreds of Sunday worship services; this one will echo in my head for a long time.
The final concert was at the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, an early Renaissance church in the San Polo section of Venice. Our guide warned that we could easily get lost in its sinuous alleyways.
For those of us who would explore the neighborhood during PCC’s rehearsal, it was a warning worth heeding. When we returned later for the concert, we found a crowd of about 100 waiting for the doors to open. The composerClaudio Monteverdi’s bones rest no more than 20 yards from where the PCC stood; was it a coincidence that someone in the church turned on more lights as the chorale began Monteverdi’s “Cantate Domino”? The crowd clearly enjoyed PCC’s music and was disappointed there wasn’t a secondencore.
It was not all rehearsal and performing. Some of us toured a glass factory; some attended a Mass and worshipped with Pope Francis; some climbed the bell tower in San Marco Piazza; some went swimming in the Adriatic; a number of folks visited Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s “David” and some saw the frame of the first piano ever made (400plus years ago).
It was fun to watch the traffic at a betting parlor during World Cup mania and fun to watch and hear the crowds outside bars and restaurants cheering their favorites. Even the countryside as seen from our bus windows was interesting: Having enjoyed the wine, we enjoyed the vineyards. Although the hotel in Rome had the most incredible breakfasts and the hotel in Venice the best lobby due to a singular sofa, the hotel in Florence surpassed them for its rooftop: the best place ever for a late-night glass of wine — stars and Florence’s skyline.
We were reminded of our Pittsburgh home. Our hotel in Rome was in easy walking distance of San Pietro in Vincoli — a church known for displaying Michelangelo’s statue of Moses. It’s also a “titular” church, assigned by the Vatican to one of its cardinals; we saw a familiar name as its titular cardinal priest: Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and former bishop of Pittsburgh.
Stopping for lunch in Bologna, we saw a huge poster announcing an exhibit at one of its museums — “W. Eugene Smith — The Crazy Portrait of a Powerful Industrial City” — in collaboration with our own Carnegie Museum of Art. The chorale showed its roots in its concert attire: black shirts and pants (or a long skirt if a woman preferred) and yellow (should I say “gold”?) scarves for the women.
The PCC is an all-volunteer chorus. Its members come from a variety of backgrounds and they are united in their love of singing and their desire to perform at the highest possible level. PCC holds auditions several times during the year. Audition information can be found www.pccsing.org.
Pittsburgh can enjoy this group’s music in the months ahead. They’ll sing the national anthem in September at a Pirates game. In October they’ll be joined by several high school choirs for the annual “Festival of Choirs” at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. Then they’ll prepare for their own concerts in December, March and May, given at Ingomar United Methodist Church and Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church.
I say as I think about it all, “Where is PCC going next?” and “How can I sign up?” and “Keep this soundtrack going in my head!”