Radcliffe Choral Society

`They've done this place over neatly," I heard one of Cambridge's older generation remark behind me at the Radcliffe Choral Society concert last night. "Times do change." Paine Hall's interior decor has indeed changed with the times, but the character of the groups that have sung in it has swerved little from the standard of taste and precision established 50 years ago. Tone quality and balance vary from year to year, but the singing groups are always `neat" and last night the Choral Society demonstrated this quality again, while ranging from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater to Kodaly's folk songs.

Monotony will easily creep into any setting of the Stabat Mater, since this long, grieving text for Good Friday offers little opportunity for the composer to vary tempo and feeling. Pergolesi made the job even harder for himself by writing his piece for soprano, alto and small chamber orchestra, very limited resources indeed, and his attempts to introduce contrasts succeed only partially. Because the chorus shared the 13 sections with the soloists in this performance, their refreshing fullness of tone overcame the monotony of the original score with a tasteful and perceptive arrangement.

The Stabat Mater's simplicity became a great virtue because of this change. While its melodies and accompaniment flow with ease and winning sweetness, its mourning draws back from florid tone-painting to achieve a simpler expression of grief. The introduction of the chorus was, indeed, not an intrusion, for Emily C. Romney, Assistant Conductor of the Choral Society, directed the group with simplicity and made the delightful melodies really sing.

Perhaps the performance erred to the other extreme, for it emphasized the somberness of the text at the expense of its pain. Accompanist Marian Whitney was wooden and occasionally bumbling. The solo varied from Lila Woodruff's supple Vidit suum dulcem natum to Sharon Price's tentative, poorly-pitched Fac, ut portem Christic mortem; Gay Sa'adah and Phyllis Sogg performed quite capably.

Greater variation marked the other half of the program, conducted by Elliott Forbes. Three motets by Victoria, Beveridge, and Randall Thompson displayed control and lightness, the Thompson work being of peculiarly obvious but quite appealing construction. Two 17th century "ayres" by John Hilton and two 16th century chansons by Claude Le Jeune were sung delicately, but the chorus's diction was not always good. In a more lyrical vein, two songs of Brahms and one of Schumann were wonderfully rich and fluid, the latter ending softly with well-controlled dynamics.

Forbes again demonstrated his excellent taste with two American folk songs arranged by John Jacob Niles and J. Colman and an Irish ballad done by the late Archibald Davidson. Emily Romney sang The Gambler's Wife with a freedom that never became hackneyed.

Two folk songs of Zoltan Kodaly captured the enthusiastic audience completely, for even without understanding the Hungarian one can delight in the explosive consonants that the chorus ignited so capably. That was the test of the group: restrained in Pergolesi, it could still break forth in Kodaly.