Passion, Through a Choir's Revelation

Passion, Through a Choir's Revelation . . . . that was the title of the New York Times article.

From the article:

New Yorkers have gotten to know the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, a noteworthy Caracas chorus, for its participation in the Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov's "Pasion Segun San Marcos." The group performed it at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2002, during the Lincoln Center Festival in 2006 and in this year's Mostly Mozart Festival. Based on that, one could assume that the chorus was formed to sing Mr. Golijov's piece.

Actually it was the other way around. The Venezuelan composer Alberto Grau founded the Schola Cantorum in 1967, and Mr. Golijov conceived his Passion with the choir's distinctive sound in mind. On Friday night at Avery Fisher Hall, the choir demonstrated its range during the final program of the Mostly Mozart Festival. (The concert was repeated on Saturday night.)

The first half, devoted to a cappella choral music, began with Alberto Ginastera's "Hieremiae Prophetae Lamentationes" ("Lamentations of Jeremiah", composed in 1946 during a brief exile in the United States after Juan Peron came to power in Argentina. "My heart is wrung within me, because I have been rebellious," went one line in a translation provided in the program notes. "In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death."

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