The Sandspur

Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: Life & Times

Media Credit: Bach Festival Society LOVE AND WAR: Dr. John Sinclair conducts an eclectic classical concert performed by both professionals and students.

Of all the resources available to Rollins students, the most unattended and underrated are Bach Festival Orchestral and Choral events. As students pass by Knowles Chapel with their iPods on or their car stereos blasting, little do they know that heavenly music is often being performed in the heart of their own campus. These performances occur throughout the year and are open to students and faculty.

The Bach Festival Choir is made up of over 160 auditioned volunteers, many of whom have been members for over a decade and have been musically and professionally trained. The orchestra consists of professional musicians, many of whom teach privately or at universities including Rollins. They are joined by visiting soloists of the highest caliber, and led by the finest of Artistic Directors and Conductors, Dr. John Sinclair. Dr. Sinclair is also the Director of Music at Rollins College, heading up the Department of Music and many of its student choirs and ensembles. Music students are often encouraged by Dr. Sinclair to join the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra as well.

A Season of Love and War

Over the weekend of April 18th and 19th, the Bach Festival Society ended their 2008-2009 program series entitled, A Season of Love and War. The spring-appropriate theme for these final performances was love. The program consisted of Peter Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Rachmaninoff's Vocalise and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Carl Nielsen's Hymnus Amoris, and excerpts from the love section of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
Other than the Hymnus Amoris, the program was filled with recognizable tunes. Even those that cannot recognize these composers and works by name would recognize the main themes if they heard them. Dr. Susan Cohn Lackman's program notes concisely describe the purpose for picking such a "poppy" program-although we can recognize the main themes as background music, it is rare that they ever listened to carefully and thoughtfully in their entirety. Dr. Lackman conclusively states, "These compositions are works of genius and patient craftsmanship, and we wouldn't be inundated in this music were it otherwise."

Programmatic Music

The Bach Festival Orchestra truly displayed the craftsmanship of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture with their unified virtuosity and expressiveness. Listening to them makes it easy to forget how much work, rehearsal time, and training it takes to reach such musical clarity and muscular ease. While the choir and soloists get to sit back for half the program, the orchestra and conductor are subjected to full-time labor both in terms of rehearsal and performance.

The Bach Festival Society, as usual, hired wonderful professional soloists to supplement the Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra. The soprano, Sharla Nafziger, was especially radiant, performing Rachmaninoff's Vocalise with seeming ease and adding such beauty to the choral works which featured her solos. One of her amazingly held highest of high notes was enough to cause a distinct ringing and pulsing of the ear drums, as confirmed by many audience members. Whenever she sang, people's faces displayed their awe. Even Dr. Sinclair's expressions showed hints of euphoria each time Nafziger sang. The male soloists were undoubtedly shadowed by her lyrical grace and rhythmic clarity.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, on the other hand, focuses less on the text and more on percussive rhythms that the choir and orchestra can create. Dr. Lackman's program notes described the text topics in Carmina Burana as being based on "unrestrained and boisterously whimsical medieval songs, on topics sacred to risqué" found in a monastery just north of Munich where Orff lived and worked. The tone and meters are often chant-like and it was very enjoyable to watch Dr. Sinclair conduct the tempo and time signature changes so smoothly and intuitively while cueing everybody on their entrances. The Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra performed Carmina in its entirety last season in the chapel, and the Choir will be performing it in Daytona with the London Symphony Orchestra in May. Yet, for this program, only the third section of the work was performed, because it is appropriately themed and titled "Love."

As a piano major studying under Dr. Cook and as a music major closely approaching graduation, this Bach Festival performance had a profound effect on me. Joining the Bach Festival Choir as a student member during this last set of rehearsals and performances provided insight which is unperceivable to the mere spectator. Two-hour rehearsals, singing difficult music with wonderful singers, sitting behind the orchestra as they performed, singing in the chapel with the stained glass windows shining down, and being conducted by Dr. Sinclair were all such privileges. I am still getting flashbacks and hearing the music in dreams and daydreams.

What happens in the chapel stays in the chapel. The performances are one-of-a-kind gems that cannot be turned into bits and bytes for your temporal convenience. You can't download it for free as low-quality mp3 files-and you wouldn't want to! This is the real deal, folks. This is music.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Dr. Gloria Cook also joined this Bach Festival performance, who stole the stage with her performance of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Dr. Sinclair stated that this performance alone was worth the full ticket price. And it truly was. As Associate Professor of Piano at Rollins, Dr. Cook clearly displayed the superiority and complexity of her instrument while the orchestra provided textural and harmonic support. Each of her ten fingers was at one with her body, mind, spirit, and at one with her instrument. Her foot rested gracefully upon a thin, pointed heel-a natural pivot for her instinctive pedaling. Of all the musicians involved in this performance, the pianist, without a doubt, had to practice most carefully, diligently, and often-and had to perform it all primarily from memory.

Each of Rachmaninoff's 24 variations portrays such varying moods and techniques, and all were executed with beautiful musicality and impressive physical technique and stamina. From the assertive declaration at the opening, to the dark death throes of the Dies Irae chant theme; from the mesmerizing waltz to the tear-jerking melodic clarity of the 18th variation; from the quick typewriter staccato to the running scale passages; from syncopated chords against the orchestral rhythm to the thunderous rolling chords of both her hands, Dr. Cook had the audience holding their breaths.

I could not control myself from bolting up to a standing ovation as soon as she started walking away from the Steinway Concert Grand Piano. I was soon joined by a standing ovation of the entire audience. Dr. Cook looked gorgeous up there on stage, her face red and breath heavy from the intensity of her performance. Matt Tonner, a composition major, said that his heart was broken in half from the sheer beauty of it all. When asked how life was now that the performance was over, Dr. Cook only had a one-word answer: "Empty."

Carl Nielsen's Hymnus Amoris

Dr. Cook's performance was followed by an intermission, enough time for the choir to get warmed up and file on to stage. It is impressive merely to watch such a large choir line up and fill the risers. Before the second half of the program began, Dr. Sinclair surveyed the audience to see who had heard Carl Nielsen's Hymnus Amoris before. Only a violinist in the orchestra mischievously raised her hand. Doc went on to describe Nielsen as the Norwegian Brahms and explained that the Hymnus Amoris was one of Carl Nielsen's earliest choral works. Rehearsal had verified that unless the choir sang out and the orchestra laid low, the balance would be all off. The choir did indeed sing out and offered the best consonants they could to clarify the diction and rhythms.

The orchestral parts clearly outline the main themes of the work, and they were soon joined by the surprising sound of an angelic children's choir. It was a pleasure watching Dr. Sinclair work with young children, because although he becomes a little softer around the edges, the bottom line is still the same-young or old, you have to produce…and watch the conductor!

When the Bach Festival Choir began to sing, it was as if a musical army was marching towards the audience. Nielsen's Hymnus Amoris is definitely a Viking's version of a love song-not necessarily graceful, but surely enduring. What is true love but a march to the very end? It takes hard work, honest expression, faith, endurance…and it is often an acquired taste. And those descriptions seem to define much of the Hymnus Amoris.

The Latin text explores love in different lights. The children sing of love being the source and foundation of our lives followed by the soloists expressing love as youthful craving and desire. As adults, love becomes a source of both strength and pain, while in old age it is what ultimately brings a sense of peace. Angels further declare that love is divine and that it is the light.

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