"Princeton Singers up to the challenge"

February 22, 1999
By Bryan Hay
Allentown Morning Call

Subjective and controlled, the Princeton Singers surveyed four centuries of emotionally and technically challenging repertoire Friday night at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center. Artistic Director Steven Sametz, director of choral activities at Lehigh, proved he is equally skilled sculpting precise, delicate lines in an a cappella ensemble as he is chiseling robust moments with large choral forces. Master musicians in Sametz’s molding hands, the Princeton Singers revealed rare instincts that consistently brought them to the same dynamic highs and lows. Their rhapsodic boundaries were well-defined, yet the music-making remained very personal in the deliberate design.

A thin, translucent sound enveloped “Musicians Wrestle Everywhere,” a chatty poem by Emily Dickinson set by Elliot Carter. Crystalline singing carried into a set of “Reincarnations” by Samuel Barber, contemporary madrigals that raced from exciting, staccato, angular patterns, to restful solemnity. Carter and Barber proved courageous, disciplined openers, displaying the group’s confidence, sense of balance and refined listening ability.

Throughout, the voices were steadfast, carefully weighted and refreshingly clear; even the sopranos were uncorrupted by competitive vibratos. That focus wove a complex tapestry in Sametz’s “On the Death of a Friend.” The singers conveyed honesty about a soldier killed in battle, tugging on the satisfying dissonances that harmonize the sting of death.

Pairing Italian madrigals from the 16th to 20th centuries, the group bared its theatrical side. Perpetually spinning consonants in “Chi chili Chi” by Orlando di Lasso tickled audience members, even though they knew the gamy lyrics were intentionally removed from the program. Choruses about unhappily married women and men by Luigi Dallapiccola were better than a soap opera.

The profane soon yielded to the sacred. Tallis’ “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” one of the immortal liturgical works of the Tudor era, was stunningly performed, reaffirming the Princeton Singers’ birthright as specialists of the English cathedral tradition. Settings of “Exultate Deo” by Palestrina and Poulenc and an “Ave Maria” by Franz Biebl were warm and uplifting. Sametz’s “Gaudete,” with deliberate Renaissance references, provided the spirit.

Three folk songs, including a deliciously dense “Shenandoah” that evoked fog-draped Blue Ridge mountains, brought a comforting closure and renewed appreciation for the mental and physical training that goes into unaccompanied singing.