Every time there is a SMSS concert, I wonder how Kent Tritle will make it better than the last one. Sure there are favorites, but they keep piling up with music that I never heard and I go to St. Ignatius every Sunday so you might guess there are try outs for the pews. Maybe ! Kent instructs us with a soft touch and at the end of the season you barely realize that you know lots more than you did when it started. This gem mixes Monteverdi, Stravinsky and Arvo Part, spanning 400 years and showing us both how much has changed and how little. The singers and the chorus are some great sound that I don’t really have a name for without sounding silly. The church is the real place to hear this music, sacred music in a sacred space, oh I get it. Trying to separate the two does a disservice to both, but the nonpracticing want to hear too, so it helps to keep the music playing. Monteverdi wrote liturgical music for a living and had to produce all the time and Laetatus sum and the two motets that we heard show the consistent high quality of his compositions. And the singing was remarkable. Igor Stravinsky is very much in the NY scene, who would think SMSS as trendy, so his mass fit that bill. Beautifully done and preformed. Arvo Part might have been a rock star if was born 10 years later and Miserere shows us what an amazing composer he is and the singing and the singing. Ending with his Beatitudes. Lucky are the listeners because they will hear more next season, thanks Kent!
