Youthful voices, distinguished performance

With its fresh-faced young choristers, a repertoire of beloved chestnuts like “Beautiful Savior”, and a practice of performing hand-in-hand on stage, the St. Olaf Choir might strike the more callow members of modern audiences as hopelessly stuck in some sort of musical time warp.

However, as the group demonstrated during Saturday’s afternoon performance at the Marcus Center, what the St. Olaf Choir has to offer is still something very special and very precious – an oasis of remarkable skill and genuine sincerity in an often cynical and jaded world.

St. Olaf College, based in Northfield, Minnesota, is like many of the small Lutheran colleges that dot the upper Midwest, small schools that stand out for their strong music programs. However, the St. Olaf Choir program has made its mark for its influence and longevity. – this particular performance is one of the last of an epic centennial tour that has taken the group through 15 concerts in the past two weeks – as well as its directors’ mission to develop outstanding ensembles of young singers. The fact that the group has only had four directors (three of whom have been Choir alumni) since its founding in 1912 has also helped cement a particular St. Olaf “style.”

Saturday’s concert provided ample evidence for this style: a beautifully blended sound marked by spot-on pitch and remarkable cohesion by its 75 voices. These are only college juniors and seniors, but conductor Anton Armstrong draws interpretations of surprising intensity and introspection from his singers, something often absent from older, more “experienced” groups. The treble voices (sopranos and altos) are especially lovely, with the unforced purity that characterizes young, well-trained singers. Despite a little buzzing in the bass section (and a bass voice does benefit from a few more years of maturation), the men were strong and refreshingly animated.

Performing without scores, the group handled both old favorites and challenging new pieces confidently. Although most of the choir’s work is a cappella, a small chamber ensemble of strings and woodwinds accompanied on the Bach motet “Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied.” Three new compositions were also featured, all of them eminently listenable, yet very different from the expected St. Olaf set list; “On Horizon’s Brim” stood out not only for its tricky lyricism but a heartfelt message of a divinely ordained directive of environmental responsibility.

However, as befits a centennial celebration, traditional works were presented as well. Moses Hogan Jr.’s traditional spiritual “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” was a rousing, joyful closer, and an encore performance of founder F. Melius Christiansen’s “Beautiful Savior”, standard that it is, still resounded with the a simple yet undeniably emotional pull.

Commentary by Armstrong, while limited, was relaxed, dignified, and, like the performers and program itself, almost movingly sincere. This is an organization that seems to truly believe in the pieces that it performs, as befits its affiliation with the progressive Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In this era of Glee, in which the ideal of choral singing has been reduced to a loose conglomeration of soloists who just happen to be singing together, the St. Olaf Choir still stands out as an example of what a chorus should be; a blend of talent, discipline, compromise, and a sometimes selfless commitment to a common goal of excellence. As Anton Armstrong said in his onstage comments, perhaps even Congress could use a little choral training these days.