Rarely Performed Choral Masterpieces, March 16
By • March 6, 2025 0 474
In WalletHub’s new ranking of the most hard-working cities in the country, Anchorage, Alaska, made a four-rung leap into the top spot, knocking out Washington, D.C. Nonetheless, second place is impressive, and a clear rebuttal to recent sneering.
Whether WalletHub-worthy or not, the nation’s capital is also a choral capital, boasting three symphonic choruses: the Cathedral Choral Society, the Washington Chorus and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Among the District’s other ensembles are the City Choir of Washington, Washington Master Chorale, the Heritage Signature Chorale, Men and Women of the Gospel Choir, the Children’s Chorus of Washington and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC.*
A spring solstice of D.C.’s choral season will occur on Sunday, March 16, when rarely heard sacred masterpieces will be performed an hour and three miles apart by the Cathedral Choral Society and Washington Master Chorale.
At 4 p.m., the Cathedral Choral Society — joined by the Clarion Choir and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra — will present “Smyth’s Mass in D” at Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW. At 5 p.m., Washington Master Chorale will present “The All-Night Vigil at 110” at the Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW.
Born into a military family in 1858 in what is now southeastern Greater London, Ethel Smyth studied in Leipzig, both at the conservatory, founded by Mendelssohn, and privately. A Romantic composer whose romantic life focused mainly on women, she was on friendly terms with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and other classical music luminaries. Also a friend of Queen Victoria, she later became a radical suffragist (serving two months in prison) and, in 1922, the first composer to be named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Smyth “has a very distinctive voice,” said Steven Fox, CCS’s music director since 2017, the year after the death of J. Reilly Lewis. Calling her Mass “completely original,” he gave the following example: “In the Kyrie, for instance, there is a moment when the full orchestra and chorus hand off immediately to a chamber ensemble of oboe, two bassoons, flute, two horns and a triangle. We enter this completely new sound world with no notice, but it is mesmerizing.”
The hourlong work’s six sections, setting the Latin text of the Mass ordinary, are: Kyrie, Credo (the longest, at about 15 minutes), Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Gloria (placed at the end both to follow High Anglican tradition and for a triumphal finale). The soloists on March 16 will be soprano Jazmine Saunders, mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker, tenor Issachah Savage and bass Aleksey Bogdanov.
When the Mass had its premiere in London’s Royal Albert Hall, the composer’s “very natural and dramatic way of writing for the solo voices … prompted those who first heard it in 1893 to encourage Smyth to try her hand at opera,” said Fox. “She wrote several very successful operas following this Mass, including ‘Der Wald,’ which was the first opera by a woman composer ever to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.”
Also on the CCS program is Mozart’s “Meistermusik” for male choir and orchestra, a reconstruction of a piece he wrote in 1785 for a Masonic ceremony.
Ticket prices range from $25 to $96. Also offered: a pay-what-you-wish livestream. In collaboration with the Boulanger Initiative — which “advocates for women and all gender-marginalized composers” — and Right Proper Brewing, CCS will host a pre-concert event from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in National Cathedral School’s Hearst Hall, 3612 Woodley Road NW. Details, tickets and pre-concert event registration are available at cathedralchoralsociety.org.
Rachmaninoff’s a cappella “All-Night Vigil,” lasting 75 minutes (not all night), will be sung by the 60-voice Washington Master Chorale. Based on three styles of chant, the work features passages for solo tenor, at this performance Jietong Fu, who holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Texas Tech and a graduate performance diploma from Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. Of its 15 movements, the longest appears to be the 11th, My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord, about seven minutes, and the shortest the 14th, Thou Didst Rise from the Tomb, a brief minute and a half.
D.C.’s Church of the Epiphany, where Washington Master Chorale will present “The All-Night Vigil at 110” on March 16. Courtesy Church of the Epiphany.
“The Church Slavonic sounds like Russian to the general public,” said WMC Artistic Director Thomas Colohan. A translation will be provided. At 4 p.m., Colohan will give a pre-concert talk with excerpts from the piece, which was premiered in Moscow in March of 1915, partly to raise funds for the Russian war effort. Though well received, the coming of the Russian Revolution two years later meant that religious practice and music were suppressed.
“I appreciate and experience the work on a number of levels, both separately and all at once,” explained Colohan, as “an a cappella symphony or tone poem of sheer beauty in a theme-and-variation form,” as “a sacred, orthodox liturgical work of the highest excellence” and as “a profoundly musical and spiritual work that has a meditative and eternal quality.”
Recognizing this last aspect, WMC invites attendees to bring yoga mats and meditation pillows. “Meditation space is limited and is offered on a first come, first served basis,” notes the website.
Tickets are $40 and $60 ($10 for students). Current and recently terminated federal employees can request free tickets by emailing info@washingtonmasterchorale.org. A virtual presentation of the performance can be viewed online the following day for $40. Details and tickets are available at washingtonmasterchorale.org.
* The Gay Men’s Chorus’ performance of “A Peacock Among Pigeons” with the National Symphony Orchestra, canceled by the Kennedy Center, will be performed at another D.C. venue during the International Choral Festival at WorldPride 2025, May 23 to June 8.
