Vox Ama Deus presents Bach's Mass in B Minor

Then Vox’s conductor, Valentin Radu, made an encouraging gesture from the podium, and the audience abandoned convention and unleashed its repressed feelings. After that, all the soloists received a hand. At one point, the audience even applauded a particularly rousing effort by the chorus, and Radu had the whole chorus take a bow.

There are pieces that shouldn’t be interrupted by applause. I’d probably frown if an audience started applauding soloists during a performance of Messiah. But the traditional text of the mass is a set of four distinct panels. I’ve heard two famous concert masses performed as part of a church service, and the four sections were separated by religious rituals, a sermon, and mundane matters like an announcement of the church’s forthcoming pancake breakfast. If a conductor wants to treat a concert performance as a high-class variety show, there’s no reason why he or she shouldn’t.

Variety showpieces

The solos and duets in the Mass in B Minor support a variety show atmosphere. They’re all showpieces for the vocalists and the principal players in the orchestra. The vocalists always share the stage with an instrumental obbligato — an accompaniment that usually shines the spotlight on one or two instrumentalists. You can even hear a touch of cabaret in the Domine Deus, as the subdued thump of the bass strings accompanies the intimate scene created by the soprano, the tenor, and two flutes.

The Mass in B Minor has become one of Vox Ama Deus’s signature pieces. Radu conducted this edition with fast-paced intensity, yet he didn’t muddy the busy complexity that generates Bach’s grandest effects. You could hear all the lines Bach keeps in play in his choruses. In the Gratia chorus, the sopranos floated over the majestic solemnity of the male vocal line, while the trumpets accented the effect with a bright, clear thread. The text of the final section, the Dona nobis pacem, is a plea for peace, but Radu conducted it with so much verve it sounded stirringly triumphant.

Spectacular solos

Once the audience has applauded one soloist, there’s a natural tendency to feel you have to applaud all of them. If you don’t applaud, some insecure souls may feel you weren’t satisfied with their efforts. Fortunately, all the soloists had at least one moment when they deserved an extra commendation.

Julie-Ann Green’s voice possesses some of the color of a mezzo, and she and mezzo Jody Kidwell made a good match in the two duets Bach wrote for their voices. On her own, Kidwell delivered a flawless performance in the Qui sedes solo sung with oboe accompaniment. Tenor Timothy Bentch sang the Benedictus (“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”) with a moving operatic style that made Latin sound like sensuous, emotional Italian.

Bass-baritone André Courville drew one of the toughest assignments, since he had to share the stage with the valveless natural horn. The pure sound of the 18th-century horn is a guaranteed scene stealer, and its antique appearance increases its competitive power. Courville held his own, even though R.J. Kelley’s horn is a spectacular example of its species, with so many overlapping loops it looks like it was designed by a California highway engineer.