Houston Chamber Choir Will Perform LOVE SONGS & SONNETS

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir will present Love Songs & Sonnets for its post-Valentine’s offering, which will be conducted by Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, Artistic Director Designate. How do I love thee? Composers have counted the ways through the centuries. The concert is set for Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at South Main Baptist Church.

The Houston Chamber Choir will take the listener on a romantic journey that begins in the Renaissance period, opening with two searing Monteverdi madrigals, Si ch’io vorrei morire and Quel augellin che canta. Meant to be sung without a conductor, these wonderful pieces are musically complex and offer vivid imagery of their highly romantic texts. 

Next, are two important pieces from the Romantic period — with the first being Brahms’ Vier Gesänge for treble choir, horns, and harp, a staple of the repertoire. The initial compositional motivation for Op. 17 was the Hamburg Frauenchor, a group of women who rehearsed under Brahms’ direction in a private home on Monday mornings. 

The second is Franz Schubert’s Ständchen for tenor-bass chorus. Ständchen features a beautiful mezzo-soprano solo, a piano accompaniment evocative of tiptoeing (think Gilbert and Sullivan), and wonderful homophonic male singing punctuated with moments of imitation.

Next up is Gustav Holst, as the Choir offers two notable arrangements from his Six Choral Folksongs, Op. H. 136. Somehow Holst retains the simplicity of the original tune’s modalities, irregular phrase lengths, and expressive texts, but all within the context of 20th-century composition.  There was a tree is simple in construction — canonic with ostinato accompaniment. I love my love is largely homophonic. Its text describes two lovers separated by disapproving parents who are finally reunited in the end. 

The two languid, 21st-century settings from Songs of Solomon, His Left Hand and I am the rose of Sharon,  are similar in tonality and affect. Written respectively by Swedish composer, Sven-David Sandström and Swiss/Italian composer, Ivo Antognini, the Scriptural texts explore the ways in which a lover’s right and left hands are used to learn and embrace.

For a jazzy spin we turn to British jazz pianist George Shearing who wrote seven Songs and Sonnets on various Shakespearean texts. One is quickly drawn into the way in which Shearing cleverly and skillfully marries the two. By the end of the set, the union feels completely natural.

Finally, the choir closes with an example of the uniquely American genre, barbershop singing, with a clever arrangement of the partner song Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You from Music Man. 

The Houston Chamber Choir invites guests to a special “after-prom” at the conclusion of the concert for additional music, along with refreshments and fun.

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