Perfect storm of harmonies from Lake Forest Symphony

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Alan Heatherington conducts the Lake Forest Symphony

Updated: June 6, 2011 12:10PM

Conductor Alan Heatherington combined his Chicago Master Singers and Lake Forest Symphony Friday May 20 in the James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts in Grayslake, and the results were stellar.

The featured work of the evening was Mendelsson’s Symphony No. 2 (“Lobgesang”) or “Hymn of Praise,” with sopranos Michelle Areyzaga and Tricia Melzer-Swaydrak, and tenor Kurt R. Hansen as soloists..

The composer is credited with reviving interest in the choral works of J. S. Bach, and there is homage to that great Baroque composer in this lengthy choral symphony, as well as to Beethoven’s Ninth.

But the work is quintessential Mendelssohn, with rich Romantic melodies and lines. After three lengthy symphonic movements, the singing begins, but unlike the Ninth, which has but one extended song, this piece gives us nine. It is a deeply religious work, with passages from the Psalms and New Testament Epistles, displaying Mendelssohn’s devotion to his Lutheran faith. His chorale, sung a cappella, is the familiar “Now thank we all our God.”

“Lobgesang” was sung in its original German, with a translation in the program. The singers’ spirited entrance, after the three orchestral movements, was stunning, filling the acoustically fine theater with glorious song.

The first was for chorus and soprano. Areyzaga has a gleaming voice, expertly pitched and she sang with great heart. Even with the orchestral’s full force behind her, she sailed through, her tone suffused with light.

She had two duets with tenor Hansen, and their voices blended beautifully. In the fourth songs Miller-Swaydrak, who has been with CMS since 1995 and is a soprano section leader, stepped from the chorus to join Areyzaga in a double soprano duet and their synergy was delightful.

Make no mistake, this showcase of choral splendor is reverent, but it is muscular as well. That should be no surprise. Many of the Psalms are attributed to King David, who, after all, brought down Goliath!

The work ended as it began, with brass blazing and drums rolling. A hymn of praise indeed.

Heatherington opened the program, which was repeated the following night, with the two completed movements of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished). Despite its beautiful melodies — and what a melodist Schubert is — the work is fierce, stormy, even disturbing in its rich orchestration. The Lake Forest Symphony gave a strong performance, its cellos and basses floating about the buzzing violins and violas, its reeds cutting brilliantly through the strings’ curtain of sound.

It seemed a perfect storm of harmonies, with the Lake Forest brass, especially the French horns, more mellow than I have ever heard them. And then, suddenly, the symphony was over, fading away — unfinished.

For information on the Lake Forest Symphony’s 2011-12 season, call 847-295-2135 or visit www.lakeforestsymphony.org. For information on the Chicago Master Singers 2011-12 season, call 847-604-1067 or visit www.chicagomastersingers.org.