Every performance has a defining a moment, a moment that encapsulates its essence. Usually, the moment comes at the end. Usually, you know it when you see it.
But usual didn’t figure into Sno-King Community Chorale’s “Musica Da Coro” at Edmonds Center for the Arts this past weekend. It was exceptional, spectacular, absorbing.
I didn’t know it at the time. But “Coro’s” defining moment came just before intermission when all of us, enraptured, had come to our feet applauding.
“That guy’s got seven fingers,” I heard a man behind me blurt out. That man — whoever he was — hit the nail on the head.
The reference was to featured artist Walt Wagner, a local pianist geographically but from another planet entirely when it comes to the 88 keys to his kingdom – the piano – and piano no two hands, each with only five fingers, can possibly play. The sound is too rich for any run-of-the mill digitations.
Wagner’s interpretation of Vangelis’ theme for the film, “Chariots of Fire,” was the equal, if not superior to any I’ve heard by full symphony orchestras. Somehow, someway, he incorporated the rapture of winds, the sensitivities of strings, echoes of the fanfare of brass and the articulation of percussion in addition to the piano’s voice. Not to mention evidence of a serious grounding in straight and contemporary classical, pop, blues, rock, country and jazz.
Plus, the dude thrilled and chilled with Victor Young’s “My Foolish Heart,” an unrecorded version of “The Victor,” Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and “Brain Damage” from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” How’s that for musicianship taken to the next level?
All of which is only to say that Walt Wagner embodied the pursuit of excellence that Sno-King is committed to and that the concert was an example of.
The Brass Ensemble got a little loud with “Rhapsody in Rhythm,” an arrangement by Mark Brymer.
The Edmonds Community College Symphonic Choir, Kirk Marcy conducting, did marvelous things with Cole Porter’s matter-of-fact “I Got You Under My Skin,” the romance and sadness of “I Love Paris,” the comical universality of “Too Darn Hot” and others. No doubt about it, they made Porter a transporter back in time to pre 1950s America.
As for the concert’s second half, the full Sno-King Chorale with accompaniment, Frank DeMiero conducting, sang it all, from Cambridge composer John Rutter’s “Requiem,” replete with texts based on the Missa Pro Defunctis, Book of Common Prayer and Psalms. We’re talking about seven meditations on life and death, prayers on behalf of humanity, psalms’ wisdom, personal prayers to Christ and affirmations of divine glory, the whole kit and caboodle.
Mind you, requiems are written for the dead, to give them peace and consolation. Imagine the clarity of mind it takes, the scope of emotion, the discipline, the dedication.
If Wagner hit me where I live, “Requiem” took me beyond, to the place where I speculate about things to come.
Emcee W. Joe DeMiero, related by blood to the conductor, kept things lively. Completely in the moment, spontaneous, funny, charming, informative and gracious, W. Joe’s is a winning personality.
This was a terrific concert, put on by a community-based choral organization, affiliated with and sponsored by Edmonds Community College’s Music Department. The Edmonds Community College Foundation underwrote it. Everyone involved stuck to a high standard of excellence. Fact is, Walt Wagner considered it a pleasure to perform with them. Like attracts like. I’m not surprised.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
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