Cantus, a men’s vocal chamber ensemble, performed at the Discovery Theatre last night. The 700-seat hall was sold out, and an outreach event the previous night at Our Lady of Guadalupe was also extremely well attended and successful. Clearly, Anchorage has a thing for choirs.
Cantus was formed in the early-mid 1990s at St. Olaf College by a group of men who wanted to continue singing in a men’s vocal ensemble after their mandatory time in the Viking Chorus (freshmen men’s chorus) was up. Cantus is unique in several ways. The Minnesota-based group rehearses for five hours a day, five days a week, and members of the group also do all the administration, arranging, rehearsing, and performing required of a world-class touring vocal ensemble.
Last night’s performance was the premier of Cantus’ touring program for the 09-10 season, entitled “Elemental,” and based around themes involving the four elements (earth, wind, water, fire). The concert opened with “There Is a Meetin’ Here Tonight,” which gave the audience a first taste of Cantus’ vocal virtuosity and incredible ensemble singing. This was followed up by Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque,” which was gorgeous. I love Whitacre. I usually also love the choral works of Zoltan Kodaly, but found my mind wandering during his “Mountain Nights I.” A work on the first half that the audience was buzzing about during intermission was Malcolm Dalglish’s “Little Potato,” that featured Aaron Humble playing a toy piano a la Schroeder and Paul Ruodi singing solo. The song is written from a new father’s perspective about his offspring and is cute, although it seemed a little weird (too cute, maybe?) in concert.
My (and my companion’s) highlight of the first half was a work called “Songs of the Ancient Sea,” by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, that kept the members of the chorus busy doing everything from imitating wildlife to providing a powerful bass line with a mariners’ chant that sent chills up my spine.
The second half opened with a piece for boomwhacker ensemble by Cantus member Timothy Takach. Boomwhackers are pieces of tubing of differing length that boom when you whack them (Cantus sat in a semi-circle and whacked the boomwhackers against their legs, mainly). This work had no singing, but did include comedy and deft handling of the boomwhackers and was pretty awesome. An audience highlight on the second half was Lerner & Lowe’s “They Call the Wind Maria,” from Paint Your Wagon. A perennial favorite of mine is “Loch Lomond,” which brought tears to my eyes. (And, in a bizarre coincidence, I had been singing Loch Lomond earlier in the day while tromping up an overgrown trail on Turnagain Arm after a fallen branch caused a “you take the high road, I’ll take the low road,” comment.) The Sacred Harp Hallelujah was one of my two favorite pieces on the second half. Deceptively simple music and rhythm and ever so powerful. Cantus’ version of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “Wanting Memories” was absolutely gorgeous. The words and melody were so well-suited to being sung, and the subject matter tugged at the audience’s collective heartstrings.
The final piece on the program, “Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o,” by Izumi Taku, seemed like a really weird choice to end such a varied and interesting program. It’s a pretty piece, but I expected something more rousing for a finale. Cantus did come out to perform an encore of an African-American spiritual, which left me pretty happy. All in all, it was a delightful evening, and I’m thrilled Cantus finally got to visit Alaska. The folks in Fairbanks are in for a treat tonight.
