<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title">John Frayne | Ending the Krannert season with a (big) bang</h1>
<div class="gmail-clear-block" id="gmail-content-content">
<div class="gmail-col-md-12">
<div class="gmail-node" id="gmail-node-1619359">
<form id="gmail-bookmark">
</form>
<span class="gmail-submitted"><div class="gmail-submitted"><span class="gmail-timestamp">Thu, 05/24/2018 - 7:00am</span> | <span class="gmail-authors"><a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/author/john-frayne"><font color="#0066cc">John Frayne</font></a></span></div></span>
<div class="gmail-p402_premium">
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-p402_hide">
<div id="gmail-social-media-widgets">
<div class="gmail-social-share">
<a class="gmail-share-btn" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2018-05-24/john-frayne-ending-the-krannert-season-with-big-bang.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.news-gazette.com/sites/all/themes/custom/ng_fbg/images/32-facebook.png"></a>
<a class="gmail-share-btn" href="https://twitter.com/share?url=http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2018-05-24/john-frayne-ending-the-krannert-season-with-big-bang.html&text=John+Frayne+%7C+Ending+the+Krannert+season+with+a+%28big%29+bang" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.news-gazette.com/sites/all/themes/custom/ng_fbg/images/32-twitter.png"></a>
<a><img src="http://www.news-gazette.com/sites/all/themes/custom/ng_fbg/images/print.png"></a>
</div> </div>
</div>
<p>On May 1, the audience for
Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" in the Foellinger Great Hall was very
large in number, more than I have ever seen for a concert by the
University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra.</p>
<p>The number of performers on the Foellinger Great Hall stage was as
high as any concert I have attended in the past. And aside from the
throngs on the stage, part of the balcony was set aside for the Central
Illinois Children's Chorus. All these musical legions were there to
perform Britten's massive and complex 1962 "War Requiem."</p>
<p>In 1958, Britten was asked to provide a choral work to be performed
at the consecration of the new St. Michael's Cathedral in Coventry,
England. The previous cathedral, which dated back to the 14th century,
had been destroyed in a German bombing raid in 1940. Britten, a man of
strong pacifist convictions, had chosen not to serve in World War II.
Indeed, from 1939 to 1942, he had been with his partner Peter Pears in
the United States. Upon their return to Britain in 1942, Britten and
Pears were given conscientious objector status.</p>
<p>In planning this work, Britten made a fundamental choice that ended
up as a stroke of genius. He would set the Roman Catholic Mass for the
Dead, in Latin, and juxtapose the familiar, general statements about
death, judgment and possible salvation of the just with poems by Wilfrid
Owen (1893-1918), who had served on the Western Front in World War I
and was killed in action on Nov. 4, one week before the Nov. 11, 1918,
Armistice.</p>
<p>The Owen poems serve as a contrast to the liturgical text, and in
some cases the Owen poems are in opposition to the promised salvation
and resurrection of the just in the Latin text. But aside from this, the
Owen poems give agonized personal impact to the brutal reality of life
and death in battle. The final Owen poem, "Strange Meeting," provides in
the reconciliation and mutual sympathy of a British soldier and a dead
German soldier a dramatically superb climax and ending to this mighty
work.</p>
<p>This Britten work is unusually complicated in the division of the
performers into separate units that must be kept in balance over a long
period of time. The UI Symphony Orchestra, Donald S. Schleicher
director, was skillfully conducted by Andrew Megill, the Director of
Choral Activities at UIUC. The student members of the orchestra were
joined by assisting musicians. The orchestra members performed
excellently, both in the main ensemble as well as in the chamber group
at the side of the stage, which accompanied the tenor and baritone
soloists who sang the texts of the Owen poems. This 13-member ensemble
included the members of the Jupiter Quartet and Bernhard Scully, horn.</p>
<p>The very large chorus on stage included members of the UI Chamber
Singers and UI Oratorio Society, both directed by Megill, and the UI
Women's Glee Club, Andrea Solya, director, as well as the UI Varsity
Men's Glee Club, Michael Schmidt, director. In the balcony, the Central
Illinois Children's Chorus, whose director is Solya, was conducted by
Fernando Salvar-Ruiz.</p>
<p>My tally, based on the list of performers in the program, was that
there were 272 choristers and 96 instrumentalists involved, for a grand
total of 368.</p>
<p>All of these choruses performed magnificently, and the Children's
Chorus especially offered a touching note of innocence in contrast to
the sometimes grim subjects treated by the main stage performers.</p><div class="gmail-insertAdRight"><div id="gmail-div-gpt-ad-1392329065879-20" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/4073248/NG_Stories_MR_0__container__" style="border:0pt currentColor"></div></div>
<p>Soprano soloist Courtenay Budd, seated up amid the choruses, sang
with admirable authority passages of the Latin text. The Owen poems were
sung with vibrant intensity by Sumner Thompson, tenor, and David
Newman, baritone, and their final duet in the poem "Strange Meeting" was
a breathtaking moment of emotional release.</p>
<p>The audience erupted in applause at the end of this 85-minute
performance, with strong cheers for the Children's Chorus and at the
entry onstage of the various choral directors.</p>
<p>With a final note of congratulations to all who took part, let me
also note the superb work of director Megill in molding the various
forces into this successful performance. This was a deeply moving and
satisfying end to the 2017-18 season.</p>
<p><em>John Frayne hosts "Classics of the Phonograph" on Saturdays at
WILL-FM and, in retirement, teaches at the UI. Reach him at
<a href="mailto:frayne@illinois.edu">frayne@illinois.edu</a>.<span></span></em></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>