Randall Thompson

*  The Nativity According to St. Luke
*  Pueri Hebraeorum
*  The Morning Stars
*  A Feast of Praise

Soloists, Motet Choir of the First Presbyterian Church, Warren, Ohio
Cleveland Sinfonia Sacra/Frances Gress Burmeister
Total Time: 48:37 + 50:01
Koch 3-7210-2

Summary for the Busy Executive: Too damned nice.

It seems that Schirmer's publishing house looked eagerly for a follow-up
to its fabulous mega-hit of a television opera Amahl and the Night Visitors,
by Gian-Carlo Menotti, and thought to give Randall Thompson a try.  It's
fairly indicative of the confusion in the Lovely Tonal Music Camp of the
1950s, sown by the high dragons of the musical mandarins.  The desperation
- or what appeared to me as desperation - on the part of concert
organizations and publishers in the face of what seemed (and to a large
extent was) the monopolization of artistic validity by the "hard" composers
like Carter, Stockhausen, and Boulez drove conservatives into the trap of
vapidity.  They hailed one after another new young hope as the savior of
Real Music, only to find that each had the staying power of Menudo.  Lovely
Tonal Music became, unfortunately, a cause rather than the way good
composers needed to write.  Such works gave off a strong whiff of the
second-hand and the pastiche.  Rather than fighting for someone genuinely
interesting - composers like Diamond, Piston, Mennin, Bernstein, Barber,
Bergsma, Thomson, Lees, Imbrie, Fine, Bernstein, Foss, Schuman, and so on
- they wanted music to provide no challenge whatsoever, total comfort - a
fairly bloodless idea of beauty, all too predictable in a culture dominated
by consumerism.

Thompson, in many ways an ideal choice, had long ago become disaffected
by new music and had resolved by the time of the commission to avoid
professional performance as much as possible.  From the Twenties through
the Forties, most regarded him as one of America's leading lights, with
symphonies (the second especially popular), major choral pieces (Americana,
The Peaceable Kingdom, Frostiana, The Testament of Freedom, Alleluia), and
chamber music (String Quartet No. 1) to his credit.  Along with Roger
Sessions, Walter Piston, Howard Hanson, and (later) William Schuman, he
crafted the standard university-level composition curriculum in the United
States.  Obviously, he knew his onions.  His work for amateurs at its best
rises to a very high level.  It neatly balances technical challenge and
consideration.  A community or church choir sounds much better than it
probably is when it performs a Thompson piece, all due to Thompson's
consummate craftsmanship.  Most North American choristers probably know
several works by Thompson and very likely have sung them more than once.
However, his thoroughly deserved success in this niche has obscured his
achievement elsewhere.  I doubt many such choristers know that he even
wrote one symphony, let alone three.  Furthermore, his musical conservatism
has left him out of most serious discussions of American music, as it has
others.

Thompson traded in several manners and idioms.  I like best the language
based on Appalachian hymns and folk tunes - works like the Suite for Oboe,
Symphony No. 2, String Quartet No. 1, Frostiana, and especially The
Peaceable Kingdom.  The Nativity According to St. Luke, a late-ish work,
has some of this, but most goes along in a too-comfortable vein, which I
associate with 19th-century French sacred music, especially works by Gounod
and Saint-Saens.  Like Thompson, each of these composers knew the craft of
writing.  Real inspiration, however, burns fitfully in these works, despite
wonderful moments.  The prelude to the work features a pizzicato "walking
bass" based on the bell-ringing change "treble bob minor," which will
return in its major form in the final number.  The scene of the angel
announcing to the shepherds the news of Christ's birth culminates in a
delightful fugal gigue.  The adoration of the infant Jesus in the manger
and Mary's lullaby, based on a text by Tudor poet Richard Rowlands, crown
the work - lovely indeed.  Yet between the various isolated highpoints come
long stretches of musical filler, Bachian noodlings and twirls without
anything near Bach's substance.  Here, the air hangs heavy with good taste
- so Episcopalian, somehow (no offense meant to any Episcopalians out
there).  Art that matters usually risks something, often disaster.
Thompson not only doesn't leap off the edge, he views it from a comfy
seat at a cafe table at least twenty yards away.  This art would pass
the scrutiny of both New York Mayor Giuliani and Senator Helms.  The only
people I can imagine this work would offend would probably be those to whom
art actually mattered.

The performance would probably have gladdened Thompson's heart-trained
singers and amateur chorus "getting up" the work and working with
professional-caliber small ensemble (13 players plus organist).  The
ensemble is peppered with ringers, in some cases, first desks of the
Cleveland Orchestra.  It's a superior amateur performance, lacking only
the strong, ringing tone of professional choirs.  Of the mostly-capable
soloists, Kenneth Kramer as Zacharias stands out, with a dramatic
bass-baritone.  Tenor David Root as Gabriel and soprano Amanda-Joyce Abbot,
a Mozartian Susannah, as Mary, although trained singers, have a naive
quality to their voices which serves them well in this music.

The remaining works - Pueri Hebraeorum, The Morning Stars, and A Feast
of Praise - showcase the choir.  Pueri recreates the Gabrieli antiphonal
motet, and completely successfully, with strong rhythms and deceptively
simple harmonies laid down without a misstep.  The Morning Stars portrays
Job and the voice out of the whirlwind, in an idiom similar to Thompson's
familiar Alleluia.  A Feast of Praise opens with a big-hearted tune,
moves to a contemplative middle section, and ends with a jumping finale,
reminiscent of Pinkham's Christmas Cantata.  The choir's a good, trained
amateur group.  Intonation is often shaky, with sections not in tune with
themselves or each other.  This results in a "spread" in Thompson's
diatonic chords and robs them of much of their impact.  Diction comes
and goes, mostly absent in The Morning Stars.  However, the choir's
performances over all are acceptable.  Burmeister, however, has one grating
flaw.  She can't generate the compelling line essential to Thompson's
music.  The pieces constantly fall to stops and restarts, rather than move
convincingly from beginning to end, and I blame the conductor.

In all, I recommend this disc mainly for the repertory.

Steve Schwartz