Back Bay Chorale looks small, plays big

MUSIC REVIEW (excerpts)

By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff | May 25, 2006

CAMBRIDGE -- Now in his second season as music director of the Back Bay Chorale, Scott Allen Jarrett seems determined to reposition his ensemble in the shifting hierarchy of area choruses, presumably in a place near the summit, if not on it.

He -- and they -- are on the way. Technically the standard of Friday night's performance of Beethoven's challenging ``Missa Solemnis" was high. The chorus ran the hurdles accurately, with quality sound from soprano to bass. Nobody screamed, and there were many nuances of color and dynamics. The singers were secure enough to go for broke, which is essential in this work, yet they could also pull back for quietly intense delivery of the less turbulent sections.
The orchestra of Emmanuel Music was smaller than what one usually hears in this work, but one never felt the absence of sheer numbers, and the group played with chamber-music virtues of individuality and ensemble. Concertmaster Danielle Maddon played the long solo in the Benedictus with a sweet, consoling timbre.

....

The ``Missa Solemnis" was previously heard this season in performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under James Levine . The Back Bay Chorale's was more modest, but not less ambitious. 

This story ran on page F6 of the Boston Globe on 5/25/06.
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