Asian Tour 1967

Last night at Sanders

A farewell concert by a tour group has, or should have, a special quality of excited anticipation. To use a blasphemous example, the appearance of Asian Tour 1967 was a little like the unveiling of the 1967 Cars. But unlike an unveiling, what was revealed was not a finished product but a point of departure, deserving not so much praise for its perfections as good wishes for its future attainments. Last night's concert showed, in short, that the Asian Tour group of the Glee Club and Choral Society, for all its spirits and precision, has important deficiencies to overcome.

The program leaned heavily toward light music, and the few exceptions received the weakest performances. Brahms' intensely sorrowful "Warum ist das Licht gegeben" sounded disjointed, with the seemingly endless phrases of the first section losing momentum every measure or two; only the final chorale generated a genuine mood. The men's performance of Schubert's "Gesang der Geister uber den Wassern" showed complete insensitivity to Goethe's colorful text.

Persichetti's Spring Canata, a setting of four poems by e.e. cummings for women's chorus, was in contrast vivid and lively. Vaughn Williams's In Windsor Forest, the most voluptous piece on the program, was also the best performed. Kay Tolbert's crisp solo in "The Conspiracy" and the chorus' rendition of the dreamy meanderings of the "Wedding Chorus" were perfectly natural and uninhibited. So were the two spirituals at the end of the program; Archie Epps in "Ride on King Jesus" created a lilting pulse that was still with me long after the concert. And in Britten's "A Hymn to the Virgin" the main chorus and a tiny answering chorus competed (with the small chorus just barely winning) for the honor of making the most refined choral sound of the evening.

The rest of the program was more conventional--some Tompkins and Morley, sounding boxy and if it needed a chorus one quarter the size of the tour group, some incongrously Western-sounding "Asian" songs, and choruses from La Reine Indigo, by Johann Strauss, Jr. The saving grace of these choruses were some absurdly ornate soprano solos, masterfully executed by Carlotta Wilsen. Like the other successful pieces on the program, the Strauss was impressive primarily for its animation and coherence; when Asian Tour 1967 achieves these qualities more consistently it will be a fine performing group.