December 12, 2009 - THE PLAIN DEALER
Apollo's Fire does Praetorius proud
by Donald Rosenberg

With all due respect to George Frideric Handel, “Messiah” doesn’t hold a monopoly on music that generates holiday rapture.

Among the frigid-weather concert pieces for which local audiences are responding with hallelujah-like fervor is “Christmas Vespers,” a potpourri of music by Michael Praetorius and friends that Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, has made a biennial event.

And an Event with a capital E it surely is, as the ensemble’s performance of this sonic feast confirmed Friday at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. The work requires massive forces to realize music director Jeannette Sorrell’s vision of Praetorius’ strikingly varied creations for the Christmas season.

Along with adult chorus (the stunning Apollo’s Singers) and youth chorus (the dulcet Apollo’s Musettes), Sorrell presides over a period-instrument orchestra of strings, winds, brasses and timpani, as well as a prime group of vocal soloists. Think of Cecil B. DeMille in Baroque musical terms and you get the drift.

If no chariot races or parting of Red Seas dazzle the eyes here, there is an enlightening array of moving, haunting and buoyant instrumental and vocal riches to beguile the ears and show Praetorius (1571-1621) to be a master of small and large forms.

The German composer, like Baroque colleagues, trusted performers to figure out how to compel the notes to leap from the page. Sorrell compiled “Christmas Vespers” from many Praetorius sources and made thousands of decisions in terms of instrumentation, tempos and dynamics. Her version unfolds in two parts, starting with a Lutheran Advent service and continuing with a Vespers service for Christmas Day.

In keeping with her imaginative and expressive bent, Sorrell achieves dramatic contrast through the juxtaposition of grand and intimate forces, supple and potent phrasing, and a journey from a cappella reverence (via a Martin Luther chorale) to Praetorius’ ecstatic setting of “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice.”

The graciously reverberant acoustics at First Baptist Church proved well-nigh ideal to caress or radiate whatever Sorrell and company offered. In the hymn “Wachet auf!”, choruses and vocal soloists set the music aloft in tandem with extravagant cornetto flourishes played to the hilt by Bruce Dickey and Kiri Tollaksen.

The trio “Ach, mein Herr” was achingly beautiful in the pitch-perfect account that sopranos Kiera Duffy, Sandra Simon and Nell Snaidas shaped into one of the work’s highlights. Each of these stellar artists made shining contributions throughout the program alone or teamed with vibrant colleagues – mezzo-soprano Kirsten Sollek, tenors Scott Mello and Marc Molomot and bass Paul Shipper.

On a set of more youthful notes, triumph emanated from Apollo’s Musettes, including solos by Madeline Apple Healey, Ashley Lingenhoel and Peter Simon.

Praetorius, lucky man, also was honored through instrumental prowess that is an Apollo’s Fire given. Silken and fiery strings, mellow winds, noble brasses, lustrous pipe organ and pinpoint drums contributed grandeur to a holiday tradition that is prompting listeners to rejoice.