25 Years to Write, 2.5 Hours to Perform

Jesse Blumberg (baritone), Nathan Carlisle (tenor), Grace Kahl (soprano), James John (conductor), Sachie Ueshima (soprano), Sarah Rose Taylor (mezzo-soprano)

At the end of every year, for 72 years to be precise, the Queens College Choral Society puts on a tremendous concert featuring singers and instrumentalists.  For their 72nd Annual Spring Concert, the society chose J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor (BMV 232).  Five vocalists were featured (Sachie Ueshima, Grace Kahl, Sarah Rose Taylor, Nathan Carlisle, and Jesse Blumberg), as well as a myriad of instrumentalists.

I’ve only been going to Queens College for one school year, and I’m glad to say I’ve become very familiar with the music department at the Aaron Copland School of Music.  Many of the performers last night were what I would call “repeat musicians,” or talented individuals who I’ve seen on stage before.  Soprano Grace Kahl, for example, I’ve seen twice in the past semester – as Philia in the school musical, and as a soloist at the Women’s Choir concert.  Monica Martin, the first violinist, had great solos both in this performance and in the Queens College Orchestra concert during Scheherazade.  An english horn solo, played by Edino Biaggi, also reminded me of the QC Orchestra concert where he was featured in an English Horn concerto.

Some of my favorite parts of the Bach’s Mass were the upbeat movements: both Sanctus and Osanna in Excelsis are just two examples.  My father got excited each time the timpani player got up from his seat to start banging on the drums – he knew something exciting was about to happen.  I especially liked the vocals of the baritone soloist Jesse Blumberg, as he sang Et in Spiritum Sanctum.  It is difficult to describe Bach’s piece overall, as it encompasses so much.  All I can recommend is listening to the composition in its entirety in the video I’ve provided.  According to the program notes, it took Bach 25 years (1724-1749) to complete this work, and originally, some of its movements were meant to be performed individually.  The program also stated that there would be many different musical influences in the piece – Renaissance and Pre-classical to be exact – but I found it difficult to pick up on these melody lines.  I did, however, hear some parts that reminded me greatly of Handel’s Messiah.

I would be lying if I said Bach’s Mass was short.  The concert began at 7:30 and ended close to 10:30.  Granted, there was a thirty minute intermission, but this is still a major masterpiece of nearly 150 minutes of music split into four different sections, with multiple movements in each, the piece lasted well over two hours.

I usually don’t do well with long concert performances, as I find it difficult to concentrate on an orchestra or soloist – I usually listen to music while doing something else.  I tend to chitchat with my mother as we both become antsy, but I like to believe it isn’t too much of a distraction.  I can’t say the same for other audience members last night.  For the first half of the concert, a couple in front of us could not be any more childish.  As the lights dimmed, the man was playing with his phone – not only distracting everyone with its light, but also sound!  He was playing back a video for his wife!  During the concert, they began filming with their cellular devices, and I had a gut feeling that something would go wrong – and it did.  As the wife was looking through her phone after recording, she accidentally pressed the playback button and the video began to play back as the performance continued!  You can’t imagine how much I freaked out because of that.  The auditorium was also quite stuffy, so acting very immaturely, the man started waving his program like a maniac to cool himself off.  The final touch came during the second half of the performance as the wife calmed her husband by giving him a lollipop and allowing him to play around on his phone.  Other people didn’t have it quite so easy either.  A man to my left kept falling asleep, and found it difficult to keep his head straight.  Every few seconds or so, his head would snap back, waking him up.  This continued for quite some time.  I can’t say that these occurrences weren’t distracting, but they definitely kept me from falling asleep and tuning out to the beautiful and soothing music!

I would definitely recommend going to at least one annual spring concert performed by the Choral Society – featuring students, faculty, and society members (and this year including the voices of members from the Tokyo Oratorio Society).  Each performance is spectacular, as I’ve been to two at this point – last year was Brahms’ Requiem, and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for this talented ensemble of musicians.

J.S. Bach Mass in B Minor
QC Choral Society
Colden Auditorium
May 18, 2013

Marina B. Nebro