S.D. MASTER CHORALE: IN HARMONY, AGAIN
CHOIR, CELEBRATING ITS 60TH YEAR, FINALLY HEADS BACK TO LIVE PERFORMANCES
Home is where the voices are. For the singers in the countywideperforming San Diego Master Chorale and their music director, John K. Russell, that’s often St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Bankers Hill. It’s there, on Saturday evening, that the chorale will sing a program fittingly titled “Cathedral Classics.”
“This is really the first time we’ll be in front of our audience and the first time we’ll be back in St. Paul’s Cathedral in almost two years,” Russell said of the program, which will be repeated on Sunday afternoon in Carlsbad at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church. An outdoor performance in El Cajon back in May was San Diego Master Chorale’s first of any kind in an entire year of COVID-safety restrictions.
“It’s overwhelming and unbelievable and then also just such a comfort coming home,” Russell said. “There are all these wild, excited emotions about just being able to do the simple things again that we took for granted for so long, to be in an acoustic space like a cathedral contrasted with recording ourselves in isolation (for online concerts).”
Sixty-five chorale members will wear masks for this weekend’s performances, but Russell doesn’t believe the vocals will sound noticeably different to patrons. His singers “adapt pretty well,” he said. “They understand that this is what we need to do right now in order to make this music.”
As to that music, the centerpiece of the “Cathedral Classics” program is Frank Martin’s 1922 Mass for Double Choir.
“Everyone who’s ever heard it wants to do this piece,” Russell said. “It’s a beautifully composed Mass setting that incorporates old-style music from J.S. Bach to these 20th-century stylings using exotic, melodic modes and harmonic shifts that are unexpected.
“It’s this wonderful weaving of old and new.”
Also on the program are selections from Sergei Rachmaninoff ’s Vespers. Russell called the Russian Orthodox chant-based, all-night vigil “gorgeous” and “one of Rachmaninoff ’s most renowned compositions for a cappella choruses.”
San Diego Master Chorale has been around for 60 years, its staying power a statement about the universal attraction its music has for audiences.
“Everyone has this instrument and everyone can be expressive with their voices,” Russell said. “I know that other cultures make singing a part of everyday life in a way that we don’t always do. But the choral singing tradition in this country is vast and the number of choral singers in the U.S. far outnumbers the number of symphony orchestra players in this country.
“(Chorale) is one of the most popular art forms because when you put together a group of singers, you can really accomplish a lot in a variety of ways. They may not even read music, but you can put a program together that doesn’t require it.”
Longtime San Diego Master Chorale patrons will be happy to hear that its much-loved “Handel’s Messiah” concert will return to St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral on Dec. 5. Audience members traditionally participate in the performance, with chorale members sitting among them.
“It’s always a moving time,” Russell said, “because everybody sings together.”