Capital Region Performance Gallery

by Dick Frantzreb

I’m sorry to report that our plan to review this outstanding concert series just did not work out.  I attended the Saturday evening performance but, thinking that someone else would be reviewing it on Sunday, I didn’t take notes.  Now, many weeks after the event, all I can draw on are a very few general impressions.  So in lieu of a review I'll offer 2 consolations.

First:  here is the concert program.  You can see that, as with all Sacramento Master Singers programs there are detailed program notes (and lyrics) for each piece performed.  And these notes illustrate the extraordinary variety built into this concert, drawing from different countries and cultures and creating an extraordinarily rich experience for the audience.

Next:  here are two videos taken by videographer/editor Serge Kuzmin that document two pieces from the program.

•  And I Can Sing (poem by James Weldon Johnson; music by J.D. Frizzell)
   

•  Cloudburst (text by Octavio Paz, adapted by Eric Whitacre, translated by Lysander Kemp; music by Eric Whitacre)

Above all, the greatest pleasure for me, and I dare say for anyone else in the audience, came from the accurate, expressive singing of the chorus under the masterful direction of Ralph Hughes.  They earn the title “Master Singers” in each concert.