Natalya Kraevsky & Jesse Raven (above)
Gerard Powers & James Courtney (below)
On March 8, at Carnegie Hall, Oratorio Society of New York Music Director Lyndon Woodside led the Society's choristers, the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra, and four worthy guest soloists in an estimable realization of Giuseppe Verdi's glorious Messa da requiem, the Latin Mass for the dead.
With Woodside's guidance and the orchestra's support, the 200-voice chorus of the 132-year-old Oratorio Society harmoniously wished the departed "eternal rest" in the opening "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine" forcefully evoked the fearsome "day of wrath," Judgment Day, in the repetitions of "Dies irae" throughout the opus; and grandly and resoundingly limned the day of resurrection in the "Tuba mirum." The choristers saluted God's glory and brought the Requiem to a hopeful conclusion in, respectively, their ringing "Sanctus" and "Libera me" fugues.
Soprano Natalya Kraevsky and New York City Opera mezzo-soprano Jesse Raven and tenor Gerard Powers mellifluously sought answers and aid in "Quid sum miser tunc dicturus." With veteran Metropolitan Opera bass-baritone James Courtney, they beseeched God for mercy in the "Salva me, fons pietatis" section of "Rex tremendae majestatis" and in the plaintive "Lacrymosa," which ended with a fervent "Amen." In the Offertory, "Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae," the quartet seamlessly blended voices in a request for deliverance for those lost.
Kraevsky and Raven gently implored Christ for empathy in the " Recordare" and "Agnus Dei," beginning the latter a cappella and remaining an octave apart. Singing in colorful, liquid tone, Raven warned of the judgment ahead in "Liber scriptus proferetur" and called for blessed "eternal light" for the dead in "Lux aeterna luceat eis."
In his all-but-operatic assignment, Powers lyrically asked for forgiveness in the "Ingemisco," capping the plea with bright top notes, and led off a graceful "Hostias" in the Offertory. Courtney entered his request for clemency for the dead in cavernous sound in an imposing "Confutatis maledictis" and issued a late appeal for their "eternal rest" in the "Lux aeterna."
Lending a dusky instrument to the climactic "Libera me," Kraevsky, with urgency, asked for the soul's liberation and expressed terror concerning God's ultimate verdict. She rounded off the evening by floating a final soaring prayer for light and repose everlasting for the dead.
The Oratorio Society's final presentation of its season at Carnegie Hall is an eagerly anticipated Orphée et Euridice, the opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, in Hector Berlioz's edition, starring coloratura contralto Ewa Podle, on May 2.
Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7 th Avenue
Tickets $60, 50, 40, 35, 25 & 17 212/247-7800 or
Tickets $60, 50, 40, 35, 25 & 17 212/247-7800 or http://www.carnegiehall.org
Web site: http://www.oratoriosocietyofny.org