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11.5.2001 00:16
Providence Singers find their voice
• The group turns out a solid performance under the direction of Julian Wachner.

By CHANNING GRAY

Journal Arts Writer

Anyone who showed up at Veterans Memorial Auditorium Saturday who has not followed the recent fortunes of the Providence Singers must have been stunned.

Here was a group that five short years ago needed a major overhaul. But under the guidance of Julian Wachner, the group has become one of the top musical organizations in the state, right up there with the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

Wachner, who has just taken over the choral program at Montreal's McGill University, paired new music -- including one of his own scores -- with a great classic, the Mozart Requiem. While it might have seemed that the Mozart Requiem, the composer's final undertaking (which had to be finished by a student because Mozart died mid-phrase) was picked in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Saturday's program had been decided on more than a year ago.

Still, the selections seemed apt for the times, especially with the inclusion of Carlyle Sharpe's impressive Proud Music of the Storm, a moving, inventive score using the words of Walt Whitman for its text. Sharpe, a classmate of Wachner's at Boston University, was asked by his old friend to write a piece to celebrate the Singers' 30th anniversary.

At one point Whitman's verse refers to the "wounded groaning in agony . . . blackened ruins, the embers of cities." Add to that biting harmonies and some wonderful tunes, and you have a fine addition to the choral repertoire.

Wachner opened the evening with his own Regina Coeli or Queen of Heaven, a fairly upbeat, jazzy score for a liturgical setting. If I had to name a single influence it would probably be Carl Orff's glittering Carmina Burana, although there were shades of Gorecki's poignant Symphony of Sorrows in the Ora pro nobis.

Neither Wachner's nor Sharpe's music seemed much of a stretch for the singers, who turned in solid performances. It was after intermission, though, that the group caught fire for one of the most inspired Mozart Requiems I've ever heard, with razor-sharp attacks, soaring phrases, and translucent textures.

Wachner made sure the strings, local players and Boston recruits were not blown away by the voices, so often-missed details shone through. There were nice interchanges, too, between the singers and trombonists, who more than earned their keep.

Even though the big fugues that open and close the Mozart were taken at blistering tempos, the singers were not to be rattled.

An excellent solo quartet, mostly of Boston-area singers well versed in Classical-era performance style, formed the icing on an already scrumptious cake. Soprano Joanna Mongiardo and tenor William Hite stood out for the purity, control and inflection of their voices.