Deep in the magic zone of ‘Lux Aeterna’
Morten Lauridsen’s enduring composition is heart of L.A. Master Chorale program.
Even with so many composer-in-residence positions in ensembles large and small, it isn’t often that a composition produced during that time becomes an enduring hit. But Morten Lauridsen’s residency with the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1995 to 2001 produced two: the motet “O Magnum Mysterium” and the largerscaled “Lux Aeterna.”
Led by Grant Gershon, the Master Chorale marked the 20th anniversary of “Lux Aeterna” on Saturday at Walt Disney Concert Hall — and well they should, because it is a masterwork. Lauridsen found a magical zone where something is deeper beneath the serene surface and luxurious consonances draw you in.
The Master Chorale last sang “Lux Aeterna” in 2011, but that was the choral/organ version; the group had not performed the choral/orchestral version since 2001 at the Dorothy Chandler under the late Paul Salamunovich. For Disney Hall, Gershon had a very different take than the one preserved on Salamunovich’s Master Chorale recording. Whereas his was richly symphonic and heavily reverberant, Gershon’swas brighter, drier, more urgent, more transparent and chamber musiclike in texture. The character of the piece seemed to change as a result — less consoling, perhaps, yet now more joyful. Perhaps it ought to be recorded again.
Gershon included short a cappella works written by composers associated with the Master Chorale in wake of “Lux Aeterna,” though none seemed to directly reflect its sound world.
Two were world premieres. Billy Childs’ “In Gratitude” sought to respond to Lauridsen’s piece with a poem that acknowledged gratitude for love, then pain, and finally the gift of song, but in a different musical language with occasional syncopation. Moira Smiley’s “Time in Our Voices,” led by assistant conductor Jenny Wong, had voices recorded on cellphones interrupting or complementing the music. The voices were meditating on time, while the choral voices were occupied with sophisticated harmonies and antiphonal face-offs.
In Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Dante setting, “Iri da Iri,” atonal lines rose over choral drones, uniting just before Dante admits love makes the universe go ’round, while Shawn Kirch-ner’s “Heavenly Home: Three American Songs” elaborated agreeably on three spirituals.
Yet the most dramatic and interesting composition was artist-in-residence Eric Whitacre’s “I Fall,” a West Coast premiere and part of a larger work-in-progress, “The Sacred Veil.” As led by Whitacre, “I Fall” had the voices sliding upward in microtones, then downward ever so slightly, eventually falling deep into the bass section as it faded.
The concert was dedicated to the memory of Master Chorale tenor Daniel Chaney, who died in April.