Boulder – The Ars Nova Singers can be counted on to bring a little of the exotic to their always satisfying celebration of the Christmas season, and this year is no exception.
Eschewing the familiar and the popular, the Boulder-based chamber choir again follows its time-tested formula of mixing the new, old and very old and emphasizing little-known, even obscure works.
At least for a few hours Thursday evening in St. John’s Episcopal Church, this approach took the packed audience away from the holiday’s inevitable clichés and commercialism and musically transported them to a realm of beauty and spirituality.
Aside from an underwhelming version of Hildegard of Bingen’s “O rubor sanguinis/Ave Maria” that began the program on a less than auspicious note, this first- rate group performed with the impeccable precision and blend that audiences have come to expect of it.
The two Renaissance masterworks that followed got the evening onto more solid footing, especially the choir’s energetic version of Heinrich Schütz’s seven-part “Der engel sprach zu den Hirten,” with its spirited, culminating “Alleluia.”
Then, in a juxtaposition typical of Ars Nova, the choir jumped the Atlantic Ocean and presented three fascinating early American carols, including “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree,” an appealingly light, direct offering by Elizabeth Poston.
The strong second half focused mostly on modern works, including Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Cherubic Hymn” from the “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostum,” and a powerful, nuanced performance of Morten Lauridsen’s “O magnum mysterium” by the choir’s men.
As usual, surprises abounded. Among the most unusual was an updated, otherworldly version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Schaut hin, dort liegt im finstern Stall,” which draws out the work so much that the chords blur into each other and it becomes almost formless.
To give the audience at least a taste of the familiar, the choir ended with a jazzy arrangement of “Deck the Halls” and, for an encore, offered a parody of the “Wassail Song,” with a text playfully mocking Boulder.
The concert will be repeated at 7:30 tonight at St. Elizabeth’s Church on the Auraria campus and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., in Boulder,
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
