Kansas City Chorale & Phoenix Bach Choir
Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27, 2008
By STEVE JANSEN
On the same night that George Clinton (yes!) and Barry Manilow (double yes?) were in town, I was purposely holed up at the Church of the Nativity in Leawood watching the Kansas City Chorale and Phoenix Bach Choir perform their 2007-08 season concluding concerts. (The two groups also performed Sunday at the picturesque Redemptorist Church on Broadway.)
Sounds like a bad decision to watch music on a Saturday night in a freaking church (or to spend a weekend night in the ‘burbs, for that matter), yes? Well, actually, not at all, because by show’s end, I didn’t feel any remorse for not getting down to P-Funk or marinating my ears to the, uh, bittersweet yacht rock-ish renderings of Manilow.
For those of you who don’t know, the two groups – who are under the direction of Charles Bruffy – recently won a Grammy in the “Best Engineered Album, Classical” category. I’ve been to a number of the Phoenix Bach Choir’s shows in Arizona so I know from experience that their sound seriously transcends humanity.
The Kansas City Chorale and Phoenix Bach Choir performing last Sunday at Redemptorist Church. Photo by Jen Rogers
I was curious to see what they could pull off since this was the first time that I’d witnessed the two groups together (48 singers in all). The nearly two-hour concert featured the music of Ola Gjeilo, Terry Schlenker, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and selections from their Grammy award-winning disc Passion Week, which is a showcase of music by the obscure Russian composer Alexander Grechaninov.
They succeeded the most during the Gjeilo and Grechaninov pieces as I heard all sorts of crazy color ranges, whether it was minimalist vocal swabs or broad tonal brushstrokes sung in Latin and Russian. My favorite moment occurred during the conclusion of Gjeilo’s “Unicornis Captivatur,” where all 48 vocalists held one extended tone, resulting in an ambient blitzkrieg of quietude. Not even some dude’s errant ringtone – a wailing butt rock-like tune that sounded as if it was downloaded at a Kansas Speedway music kiosk during the weekend’s IndyCar races – could ruin the astonishing listening experience.
Another standout moment occurred during the Grechaninov suite when Erin Keller (ex-lead vocalist of Blackout Gorgeous) took her solos. Keller, who was performing one of her last concerts with the Chorale because she’s off to Colorado for grad school in the fall, seriously sound sounded freaking Russian. It was pretty insane.
Following the show’s conclusion, a concert going friend of mine, who is one sonically hip chica, best summed up the night when she said, “It’s like being in love. You wanna go out and tell everybody.” I totally agree because they, once again, wowed me big-time.
The Kansas City Chorale and Phoenix Bach Choir. Photo by Tim Trumble
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