For the second time this academic year, Pickard Theater was filled with the sound of blended voices and instruments as the Bowdoin Chorus tackled Mozart's Requiem Mass on Sunday afternoon.
The Requiem, Mozart's uncompleted final piece, possesses near-mythical status in the classical music world, a status enhanced by the legend surrounding its mysterious patron but one resting mostly on the merits of the music itself.
The Bowdoin Chorus is a motley assortment of students, faculty, and local residents, and the group rehearses only twice weekly, which makes this most recent achievement all the more remarkable. Whereas many other amateur groups aim to merely get through such a piece as the Requiem, Chorus Director Tony Antolini '63, the singers, and musicians offered far more than a purely competent performance.
Antolini's interpretation emphasized the dramatic elements of the piece, with consistently fast tempo choices and strongly highlighted dynamic contrasts in each section. From the opening measures, with their dark and somber sounds in the low strings and clarinets, it was clear that this was a purposeful interpretation. Supported by some gritty playing from the 25-member orchestra, the Chorus positively ripped into the Dies Irae, a central feature of the Requiem Mass depicting the terror of the Last Judgment. The Confutatis maledictis, featured in a scene of the movie Amadeus in which the dying Mozart dictates the music to his rival Salieri, likewise elicited some edge-of-the-seat playing and singing. The Lacrimosa, the emotional core of the piece, was again taken at a flowing tempo but retained its intensity through some especially poised vocals.
The soloists, soprano Sarah Hippert '05, alto Julia Lanter '04, tenor Kevin Wesley '89, and bass Jack Wilkinson '05, were uniformly excellent, with some particularly full sounds from Wilkinson in the Tuba Mirum. The exchanges between the four during the Recordare were also memorable.
The concert opened with a performance by the orchestra of Mozart's Symphony No. 36, the "Linz," under the direction of Bowdoin Adjunct Music Instructor Roland Vazquez. Despite the small size of the ensemble, the performance was completely committed, with some nice articulation in the first movement and a suitably buoyant minuet.