The rousing finale of Sunday’s Best of Serenade concert at Strathmore was a piece by Paul Halley called “Untraveled Worlds” on a text by Tennyson, sung fervently by singers of the six vocal ensembles from six countries that have spent the week here in Washington performing in this sixth area choral festival, called “Serenade!” Simon Carrington, formerly of the King’s Singers and Yale University, conducted, and it was properly uplifting. But perhaps more appropriate was the more contemplative reading (almost literally reading, because the singers had just learned it) of “Bogoroditse Devo” from the Rachmaninoff Vespers, that preceded it. It was a last-minute insertion into the program that, with the lead of the men of the Latvian Koris Logos ensemble, came across with real passion, if not a lot of finesse.
On their own, each of the groups offered a short set and, this being an age of globalization, each ensemble struggled to define a distinct personality. The 13 men of Koris Logos sounded quintessentially dark and foreboding in their set until they got to the rousing “Many Years” Orthodox toast. The Morgan State University Choir injected oomph into the proceedings with a group of spirituals and gospel pieces that sputtered with energy and the beat of a vibrato-laden sound. Both the quartet of women of the Ensemble Planeta, from Japan, and the Italian mixed-voice octet, Ensemble Musicaficta, programmed newish, rather faceless pieces or contrived arrangements of oldish pieces. But they finished with nationalistic cliches “Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)” in the case of Japan, and “O Sole Mio” in the case of Italy.
In self-definition, the most successful were: the Kobra Ensemble, from the Netherlands, six women with identical hairdos who put on a 10-minute musical theater piece, which was a commentary on abstract art and feminism whose meaning (at least to me) was elusive but fun nevertheless; and the 22-singer Tucson Girls Chorus, who opened the proceedings with the afternoon’s highlight, a stunning performance of a Magnificat by Christine Donkin for soprano solo over a shimmering, light-infused background of long-held notes. They appeared and disappeared with a mysteriousness that defined itself and that gave silences enormous impact.
