By Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Master Chorale kicked off its 75th season Saturday night with an unusual combination: the exuberance of J.S. Bach kicking up his heels and the serenity of Morten Lauridsen laying down one of his long, subtly varying meditations.
Bach deals in his “Magnificat” with the promises God made to protect and provide for the faithful on Earth. Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna,” a requiem in all but name without reference to divine judgment, deals with the promise God made to redeem our souls and give us eternal rest. So the audience at First United Methodist Church got two forms of assurance and consolation for the troubled, one upbeat and one soothing.
Artistic director Kenney Potter has directed the chorale for nine years, a job he took while it was still the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra Chorus. (It became independent in 2018.) He knows not only what it can do well but what the orchestra can do, and he made good use of that combined wisdom Saturday.
He takes Bach at a clip that’s refreshingly fleet but not too brisk, because he knows his singers can navigate the turns at that speed. He slows Lauridsen down to a steady pace, because he knows the chorale can sustain a unified sound that way. And he gets the orchestra to play alertly or ruminatively, as the mood requires.
I last heard the CSO at First Methodist in a concert three Septembers ago, when it joined organist Paul Jacobs in music by Handel and Saint-Saens. I had forgotten how clear and shimmering the acoustics were, until the trumpets popped out at me in the Bach and the low strings laid down a gentle underpinning in the Lauridsen.
The forces Saturday included a bigger instrumental ensemble than Bach would have known and a larger vocal assembly than he could have imagined in his music. Yet the combination never seemed overpowering or slack in attention to details.
In some ways, “Lux Aeterna” must have been more of a challenge. Lauridsen’s melodies have such long arcs they become scarcely perceptible; dynamics go from very loud to very soft, but the composer hardly varies the meditative tempo or contemplative mood for half an hour. (The piece picks up slightly in a section summoning the Holy Spirit, then slows right back down.)
Bach gives his music drama, bounciness, anger, joy. Lauridsen’s rolls out in waves, orchestral and vocal, that ebb and flow like the steady rhythm of the ocean. To his fans, this music creates and sustains a state of spiritual bliss. To his detractors, a group to which I more often belong, it becomes a bland, anodyne blanket of sound. Either way, I suspect Saturday’s performance came as close to satisfying the faithful or converting the unconverted as any could.
P.S. You’ll find the Charlotte Master Chorale 2025-26 concert schedule on the Charlotte Master Chorale website. The next outings are an intimate performance by the CMC Chamber Singers Oct. 24-25 and the Duruflé Requiem with the Charlotte Symphony Nov. 14-15.