the audiophile voice00

WAS BORN in Richmond, A, andeven though my family moved toNorthern Virginia when I was threeyears old (just outside the DC“Beltway”), my relatives remainedin Richmond, and we used to visitthem often as I was growing up.When I graduated college andmoved to California, my fatherretired and he and my mothermoved back to Richmond. So, as anadult, when I visited my parents, itwas there that I visited them.

In the 1970s and early ‘80s, mycollege roommate was still attend-ing the university in Richmond,working toward his eventual doctor-ate in psychology, so my yearly visitto my parents also included a visitto my ex-roommate.

I had heard my “roomie” com-plain on the phone for a number ofyears about what a musical waste-land Richmond was in those days.He often talked about having tomake the roughly 100-mile trip

northward in order to visitWashington, D.C. to hear theNational Symphony Orchestra per-form or to attend one of the manyweekly concerts of the President’sArmy, Navy, Marine Corps or AirForce symphonic bands. I had heardthat Richmond had a civic sympho-ny orchestra, and my friend startedto laugh when I asked him about it.“They’re terrible,” was his reply.“My high school band played bet-ter.”

George Graves

I

Mason Bates Children of AdamRalph Vaugh Williams Dona Nobis PacemRichmond Symphony; Steven Smith, Cond.

Michelle Areyzaga, soprano; Kevin Deas, bass-baritoneReference Recording / Fresh FR-732

Classical

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One summer Sunday, while visit-ing my parents, I noticed in thepaper that the Richmond Symphonywas putting on a concert in the bigRichmond park called “Byrd Park”(after the famous political family ofVirginia). The venue was anamphitheater named DogwoodDell, in the park. Having nothingelse to do, I decided to attend andhear for myself what the RichmondSymphony sounded like. The firstpiece the orchestra played wasMozart’s “Overture to the MagicFlute.” I don’t know what the otherpieces on the program were,because I left, totally appalled, in

the middle of the Mozart! I did notknow that a symphony orchestracould play that badly. Well, I sort ofdid. A friend of mine had gottenhold of a British recording of agroup calling itself the “PortsmouthSymphonia.” This “orchestra” con-sisted of players picked up on thestreet, and handed instruments thatthey had never played before (atleast that’s how the liner notes onthe record described the group).Anyway, they were almost as bad asthe Richmond Symphony, butbecause their lousy playing was allin fun, the Portsmouth group wasmuch more entertaining.

Fast forward more than 30 yearsto the present. I went to my mailboxone day and found a package fromSan Francisco’s ReferenceRecordings. Opening it, I was flab-bergasted to find a CD of theRichmond, Virginia SymphonyOrchestra playing works by com-posers Mason Bates and RalphVaughan Williams! “Oh, this I gottahear,” was my first reaction afterregaining my composure.

The RecordingsThis recording was undertaken

by Soundmirror of Boston. This EastCoast organization has recordedmost of Reference Recordings’“Fresh!” series since its inception.While most of the parent label’srecordings are made by ProfessorKeith O. Johnson, the Fresh! seriesis farmed-out. This reviewer hasfound Soundmirror to be a first-class

operation with a fine feel for natu-rally recording classical music. ThisRichmond Symphony recording wasrecorded live at the CarpenterTheater in Richmond. When I wasgrowing up, this venue was theprestigious Loew’s State moviepalace about two blocks from theVirginia Statehouse. As a kid, I fond-ly remember seeing “Ben-Hur” andother MGM movies there. Being afancy movie palace, they had ahuge “theater” pipe organ where theconsole rose magically from theorchestra pit to stage-level to playbetween features. Even then, I wasan audiophile, and I recall the

acoustics of that theater to be excel-lent. I can’t imagine a better re-usefor this theater than as a concerthall.

The Music“The Children of Adam” is a col-

lection of “celebrations of the cre-ation” for orchestra and chorus andwas written specifically for theRichmond Symphony’s 60th

anniversary. The texts come fromvarious American poets and NativeAmerican folklore. The title comesfrom a Walt Whitman poem and isrepeated throughout the piece in theform of choral “fanfare intermez-zos.” Between the intermezzos,each of the seven movements offersa different perspective on creation.Normally, this reviewer is some-what wary of modern, contempo-rary compositions because theytend to be quite avant garde and notvery accessible by a concert-goingaudience. I’m happy to say that thiscomposition by Mason Bates (whowas born in 1977) is simply delight-ful. While fresh and original, Batesmusic is very tuneful and theorchestration is at once exotic withlots of percussion and lush withgreat string sound and a wonderful-ly wide sound stage with greatimage specificity. The orchestra(somewhat to my chagrin) playssuperbly and the RichmondSymphony Chorus is extremely pro-fessional and sounds as good as anyrecorded chorus that I have everheard. The sound is sumptuous, tak-

ing full advantage of the old moviepalace’s exquisite acoustics. Thisone’s a real keeper.

“Dona Nobis Pacem” by RalphVaughan Williams is another choralwork, written for the HuddersfieldChoral Society on the occasion ofits 100th anniversary. Composed asEurope girded its loins for yet anoth-er world war, the second in a gener-ation, for the text of this work,Vaughan Williams chose a portionof the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)from the Roman Catholic Mass,coupled with passages from theprophets of the Old Testament, aspeech given in the House of

Commons during the Crimean Warby John Bright, and three stunningpoems from the composer’s favoritepoet, Walt Whitman (“A SeaSymphony”).

Vaughan Williams was a masterat writing choral music, and he cuthis teeth on revising the English C ofE hymnal which, according to him“Contained some of the best andworst tunes in the English musicaltradition.” This gave him ampleexperience at arranging for chorus.

Again, the Richmond Symphonyand Chorus are in great form. Theyare joined here by soprano MichelleArezagaya and bass-baritone KevinDeas. Again, Steven Smith conductsthe orchestra and Erin R. Freeman isthe choral director.

This composition is not as free-wheeling was the Bates “Children ofAdam”, but it — like most of RVW’smusic — is a showcase for both theorchestra and the chorus and is lotsof fun.

ConclusionAdd this CD to your shortlist to

purchase! You won’t regret it. Theperformances are excellent, spiritedand the sound is among the bestI’ve heard on any recent recording.I’m sure that this is, in part, due tothe excellent acoustics in the oldLoews State theater, but I must alsotip my hat to producer/recordingengineer Ed Thompson, masteringengineer Mark Donahue and all thefolks at Soundmirror for another jobwell done. Highly recommended.

Volume 19, Issue 400

Soundmirror of Boston has a true talent for recordingclassical music. On these two works, they thrive.

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