November 30, 2009: Out of the concert hall

In my blog post yesterday, "Bach in his Proper Setting," I reflected that Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 would not have had to have been abridged for last week's San Francisco Symphony subscription concert had each of the six cantatas been performed separately on its originally assigned date.  I realized that his was not feasible for the organization of San Francisco Symphony concerts, particularly when, as in this specific case, all of the solo voices were visiting artists (three from Europe and one from Canada).  This led me to consider the idea of a performing ensemble with a resident affiliation with a church that provides the appropriate setting for the music being performed.  The Bach Vespers series of services at New York's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West (a short walk from Lincoln Center) involved such a resident ensemble committed to performing Bach's cantatas on the days for which they were intended.  I then regretted that San Francisco did not have a similar institution that could maintain the same schedule.

Yesterday afternoon, however, I realized that there is at least one viable alternative, even if its focus is not strictly on Bach.  It is Schola Adventus, described on its Web page as follows:

Schola Adventus is the resident choir at Church of the Advent of Christ the King, San Francisco’s historic downtown Anglo-Catholic parish. There they have quickly established a reputation as one of the Bay Area's premier a cappella choral ensembles, specialising in Gregorian Chant and Renaissance polyphony. In December 2005 Schola Adventus toured the southern England, singing at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Christchurch Cathedral Oxford, Holy Trinity Church Stratford-upon-Avon, St James’ Church Garlickhythe in London, and All Saints, Margaret Street in London, the first visiting choir to be invited to do so. The tour culminated with a major performance at St John’s Smith Square in London, "Hodie christus Natus Est: Renaissance & Contemporary Music for Christmastide," as part of the annual Hazard Chase Christmas Festival, to much acclaim.

Schola Adventus can be heard every Sunday morning at Church of the Advent during High Mass at 11am, and on the monthly Third Sunday Series at Solemn Evensong and Benediction. In celebration of former music director Paul Ellison's fifteenth anniversary, they commissioned settings of O salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo from Bay Area composer David Conte, which were given their premier in October 2005.

Yesterday evening, in the spirit of the season and following the letter of the church calendar, Schola Adventus offered An Advent Liturgy at their host church.  Ellison served as guest director, and organ music for the service was provided by guest organist George Anton Emblom.  There were only eight voices (making "choir" a bit of an exaggeration), performing a repertoire that ran the gamut from anonymous fifteenth-century sources to Benjamin Britten's setting of a thirteenth-century text, his "Hymn to the Virgin."  However, the scale of the ensemble was a perfect fit to the size of the sanctuary, which even provided an appropriate physical setting for the "primary" and "echo" quartets required by the Britten.  Emblom offered a similarly broad repertoire, including four chorale preludes on the Advent hymn, "Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland," two by Bach (BWV 599 and 661), one by Johann Pachelbel, and one by contemporary composer Gerald Near.  He also performed the "Desseins Éternels" movement from Olivier Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur.  All music was scrupulously selected to conform to the Advent rite of the service, which was precisely how the music was intended to be presented.