MUSIC REVIEW : OCC Chorale Mixes the Serious and the Seasonal

COSTA MESA — The Orange Coast College Chorale holiday program brought good tidings to all who had pondered the choir’s fate now that founder Richard Raub has relinquished the podium. Saturday night at Robert B. Moore Theatre on the OCC campus, with conductor Ted Reid manning the helm, the chorale offered a balanced mixture of the serious and the seasonal.

The Orange Coast Chorale is a community-based group. Yet Raub never pandered to amateur status, preferring to challenge his ensemble with such major works as Bach’s B-minor Mass and Verdi’s Requiem. Reid indicated his intent to continue tackling masterworks by programming Bach’s Magnificat in D as the centerpiece Saturday evening.

Like most community choirs, the OC Chorale has rough edges, particularly an eagerness to sing out even when dynamic restraint might be more effective. The Magnificat, especially, suffered from this (the one time Reid successfully insisted on a soft entrance, for “Suscepit Israel,” the sopranos stumbled in thin and ragged).

Failure to shape phrases or to etch softly subtle lines impeded communication of dark moods such as those required by the “Magnificat anima mea” and the “Suscepit Israel” choruses. But fresh-faced fervor conveyed much of the spirit of other sections. The “Fecit potentiam” and the final strains of the “Gloria Patri” glistened with joyful energy.

Moreover, Reid elicited two qualities that set his choir apart from other non-professional groups: a consistent blending of tone among the sections, and clear, coordinated enunciation. Besides conveying text easily, refined placement of consonants permitted sudden, perfectly unified cut-offs, such as that which followed the florid imitation of the chorus “Fecit potentiam.”

As in previous years, professional soloists--in this case, soprano Laura Fries, mezzo soprano Elizabeth Saunders, tenor Dale Tracy, and baritone Ralph Cato--and free-lance instrumentalists teamed forces with the chorus. In the Magnificat, none of the vocal soloists emerged as rising stars, though Tracy’s securely sustained line and even tone drew a sense of pathos from “Et misericordia,” his duet with Saunders.

The second half of the program was devoted to traditional Christmas pieces, arrangements of Christmas songs, and the now-common audience sing-along. Faced with less technically demanding works, the choir did manage soft legato lines, especially in Robert Young’s “There Is No Rose” and the closing “Amen” of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols.” In the latter, Cato provided a rich, commanding solo.