“Story Concert” Bridges Array of Sources

Skylark Vocal Ensemble’s searching and experimenting exploration of new ways of presenting choral music from a wide spectrum of sources, from medieval to living composers, has driven its stunning ascent within Boston’s distinguished and rich choral community. On Saturday at the Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Skylark, directed by Matthew Guard, revisited its first “story concert,” a 2016 collaboration with professional storyteller Sarah Walker. This occasion was also notable for the introductory speech and intermission interviews by Joyce Kulhawik, the longtime arts and entertainment reporter at WBZ-TV, Boston. While the 2016 version had already revealed a creative concept, Guard collaborated in the subsequent years with Walker and composer Benedict Sheehan to develop it into something somewhat more homogeneous, retaining the 10 composers who, they had chosen earlier, while adding Sheehan’s interstitial music among the 16 selected works and during much of Walker’s narration of the Grimm Brothers’ “Snow White” and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” Yet even in its original form, Walker and Guard certainly intended the show for adults rather than children: the narration didn’t shy away from the darker, more frightening aspects of the tales, the varied and sophisticated music ranged from the 19th to the 21st centuries (including five living composers), set to a rather dazzling array of languages including English, French, Spanish, Serbian, Estonian, Swedish, and Finnish.

We first heard music heard neither part of the “Snow White” story nor evocative of its mood, instead serving as a “once upon a time” curtain-raiser. Vaughan Williams’s extremely evocative setting of “The Cloud Capp’d Towers” from Shakespeare’s The Tempest in its short timespan created a fantasy world. The work’s lush harmonies and frequently unpredictable chord progressions vividly illustrated the titular towers, gorgeous palaces, solemn temples, and the great globe itself. Guard’s majestic slow tempo and the singers’ serene control effectively suspended time. The final two lines, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,/and our little life is rounded with a sleep,” sounded haunting indeed. As Walker began narrating Snow White, Sheehan’s music continued the otherworldly atmosphere of Vaughan Williams’s music while taking us into the chilly E minor tonality of the next piece; the first movement of Francis Poulenc’s Un soir de neige (A Snowy Evening). Though inspired by events late in World War II, it caught the mood of the fairy tale’s opening as Snow White’s mother, a queen, dies giving birth to her. In Skylark’s polished performance, the grimness of Paul Éluard’s poem as well as the quiet determination of Poulenc’s music came through clearly.

Read full review at The Boston Musical Intelligencer