Chicago Classical Review

The vocal music tradition of the Nordic region — encompassing Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and other north Atlantic nations — is a fascinating and musically rich one that spans Lutheran liturgical music and varied strains of folk music through contemporary opera and art song. 

Though the likes of Grieg, Sibelius, and Nielsen are no stranger to Chicago concert halls, few local ensembles in recent memory have probed the expanse of Nordic choral literature with the curiosity and rigor that Chicago a cappella displays in “Northern Lights,” the vocal ensemble’s first program of the season.

Music director John William Trotter’s penchant for thoughtful and wide-ranging repertoire selection was on full view in Chicago a cappella’s season opener Sunday afternoon at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville. 

The program opened in a contemplative mood as the ten singers intoned the Finnish folk song “On suuri un rantas’ autias” from offstage. Awash in blue and green stage light, the ten singers marched to their places onstage as they progressed through the strains of Matti Hyökki’s solemn arrangement. 

Immediately following, the ensemble established its credentials in Tre körvisor from Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar. The first of the songs, “September,” exhibited the chorus’ textured sonority, from resonant low voices to floating, silvery trebles. The second, “I Seraillets Have,” is perfumed with lush harmonies and evocative text that was given an appropriate intoxicating treatment by the singers. “Havde jeg, o havde jeg en Dattersøn, o ja!” closed the grouping with flashes of winking humor.

In typical fashion, the ensemble’s members provided affable yet illuminating commentary between selections. Soprano Rebecca Fitzpatrick noted the group had worked with diction coaches to fine-tune their pronunciation in these less often-heard dialects. She also commented on the “formidable” nature of some of the program’s selections, likening it to the similarly unyielding Northern landscapes. 

Indeed, as ably as the choir navigated this repertoire, their delivery was not totally effortless. Performing without a conductor, as is Chicago a cappella’s custom, occasionally led to disagreements in tempo that were righted with varied degrees of facility. Amid the enfolding harmonies of “Maya Danser,” from Per Nørgård’s 1983 ballet-opera Siddhartha, the ensemble’s intonation stumbled through some of the song’s slippery key modulations. 

Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Suite de Lorca, on texts by the eponymous Spanish writer, proved one of the afternoon’s more evocative works, even on a program that did not suffer for textual imagery. Though technically acute, this reading missed some of the bite that could have brought this setting of Lorca’s unsettling poems into full resolution.

Two of the first half’s most memorable selections followed. Jan Sandström’s Miessi, a nod to the singing traditions of the indigenous Sámi people of northern Scandinavia and Finland, brimmed with earthy jubilance; by contrast, Sven-Erik Bäck’s Adventtide motet Natten är framskriden, composed in 1959, is as harmonically sophisticated as anything on the program. The Chicago a cappella singers navigated Bäck’s intentionally ambiguous tonality with particular aplomb, fully selling the work’s hopeful anticipation with no shortage of sinewy tension.

To close the first half, the chorus offered Edvard Grieg’s Ave Maris Stella — an entry in the more familiar plainsong vein that showed off the ensemble’s shimmering treble voices. 

A pair of works by living composers opened the program’s latter half: Kim André Arnesen’s “Norwegian Alleluia,” and Joan Johnson Drewes’ I AM – The Song of Myself. Drewes is the winner of Chicago a cappella’s HerVoice Competition, which spotlights the work of emerging women composers; though not herself Nordic, the work’s subtle color and thoughtful text treatment slotted neatly among the program’s other selections.

“Limu, limu, lima,” a traditional Swedish herding song arranged for voice by Anna-Karin Klockar, proved the unexpected highlight of the second half. “Let the sunshine over the small hills,” goes the original Swedish text, and the Chicago a cappella singers’ deliberately unfolding performance did the same — building warm, rich timbre to thaw this beautifully austere setting.

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s Four Shakespeare Songs was undoubtedly the program’s showstopper. The chorus has performed the work for more than two decades — even recording it for their 2005 recording debut (Cedille) — and that familiarity rang true in the precision and verve the singers brought to this performance. From the constantly shifting tonality of “Come Away, Death,” from Twelfth Night, to The Tempest’s haunting “Full Fathom Five,” the chorus sang with dialed-in intonation and effortless pacing. Crisp diction lent an edge to the witches’ incantation in “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble,” and breezily propelled the woozy lilt of “Lullaby” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The ensemble closed with a contemporary hymn and a lullaby. Chicago a cappella sang with nurturing tenderness in Ola Gjeilo’s Wintertide, an interpolation of the Norwegian Solrenning sæle paean for All Saint’s Day. In Gunnar Eriksson’s minor-key Norwegian Lullaby, the low voices intoned a bell-like ostinato while the women’s voices intertwined in a nocturne that wove images of a mother dancing a baby to sleep in the meadow. 

In an off-program benediction, the singers offered Mia Makaroff’s Butterfly, a poppish number that featured mezzo-soprano Miya Higashiyama in one of the afternoon’s few solo moments.

Chicago a cappella’s “Northern Lights” program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Oak Park; 7:30 p.m. October 24 at Murphy Auditorium in Chicago; and 3 p.m. October 25 at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. chicagoacappella.org

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