Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – Louis Langree, conductor. July 18, 2018.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat NN20, $46).

Program

MASS: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers (1971) by Bernstein (1918-1990).

Artists

Nmon Ford, celebrant

Concert Chorale of New York – James Bagwell, choral director

Young People’s Chorus of New York City – Elizabeth Nunez, associate artistic director

Tenzin Gund-Morrow, boy soprano

Street Chorus: see photo for members

Dancers: see photo for members

First, some background material I want to record so I can reference it in the future.  This work was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC in September 1971.  Given the controversy of Leonard Bernstein’s political views, Nixon – the US president at that time – was advised not to attend; the reason given was “this should be Mrs. Kennedy’s night.”  Not being a Catholic, I cannot tell how closely the structure of the program hews to the traditional order of mass; it appears close enough.  Except Bernstein interposes a lot of material that questions the celebrant’s faith, with the celebrant finally giving in and shattering the sacraments.  The arguing with God aspects seem to be a Jewish tradition.  Also unconventional was that the Mass was written by an atheist of Jewish descent; Bernstein did claim to be a spiritual person and wanted to write some sort of sacred music (per the Program Notes.)  In addition to traditional Latin liturgical texts, Bernstein put in some Hebrew prayers and lyrics (in English) written by himself and Stephen Schwartz (of Godspell fame.)

The music is an amalgam of various genres, including pop, jazz, classical, and 12-tone.  But the most predominant genre is broadway and street-singing.  Some recorded music was used; I also wonder how they sync up these tapes, and the transitions tonight were smooth.  The street chorus mainly played the role of doubters who constantly challenged the celebrant’s belief with “tropes” such as “I don’t know” and “Easy” that questioned the nature of sin and the worth of confession, respectively. This theme and counter-theme basically guided the rest of the music, resulting in the shattering of the sacraments.

With the aid of binoculars, one could easily observe tiny microphones worn by the singers.  The technician working the equalizer for them had a hard time keeping up with switches, resulting in some weak beginnings and an occasional loud feedback noise.  Our seats were in the second to last row of the main hall, and the voices came across fine, most of the time.  The celebrant did a lot of singing, and was on stage nearly all of the time.  He sounded uncertain at times, but generally did well.  It took me a while to locate the mic on him.

The staging was simple, with the altar as the centerpiece behind which stood the Young People’s Chorus.  Members of the concert chorale were seated in the front boxes of the first tier, women and men on opposite sides.  Dancers and street chorus used the stage to do their “thing,” and the orchestra occupied the first few rows of the auditorium.

The Program was advertised to be two hour long, without break.  It did take two hours, but didn’t feel that long; there were too many things happening that kept me occupied.

Before we decided to go to this event, we debated whether we really wanted to see it as we weren’t sure if it was worth the time (and money) to see something that might offend us.  We decided we were not that sensitive, and we had probably encountered the sentiments expressed in the work anyway.  We had some idea of what they would be anyway: Cornell made the cover of Time because of the occupation of the student center by activists, and the Engineering library was occupied for several days by anti-war protesters when I was an undergraduate.  Compared to other controversial works (Stravinsky’s, for example), this was tame.  The only cuss word used that I could catch was “goddam” and there was only one crude scene where sexual intercourse was simulated by two fully clothed actors.

When the celebrant threw the sacraments on the ground, I thought the program ended and was about to take a few photos.  Good thing I was slow, as the flute began to play a rather interesting tune (I would say also the most original) followed by singing by the boy soprano.  The Program Notes describes this as a new hope and resurrection: everything is well.  The cynical may say this simply describes the next generation of “suckers” being born.

Curtain Call.  The celebrant (Ford) and boy soprano (Gund-Morrow) are at the center.  Some members of the Concert Chorale can be seen sitting in the first tier; the Young People's Chorus at the back of the stage.

Overall, this was not a satisfactory experience, even though we had no idea what to expect.  Bernstein the composer was often maligned by his critics as being lightweight, this work would add to their ammunition.  Other than the occasional passages of brilliance, most of it sounded recycled.  The skepticism of some that the work would not have a lasting value (as noted in the Program Notes) has borne out, even to one where the anti-war, modernist movements were at the peak during his first years in the United States.  The one thing to admire was how tonight’s performance went without a hitch given the different elements involved.

A search of the web returned many positive reviews (judging by the headlines) of the performance.  The New York Times review is titled “’Mass’ Brings Out the Worst in Leonard Bernstein.”  Perhaps the cruelest remark by the reviewer was “hard to discern … why we should perform it at all – other than as a relic.”

[Note added 7/21/2018.  A couple of remarks. First was how Mostly Mozart has been transforming into A Little Mozart over the years.  The reasoning - if one can call it that - is this is "in keeping with Mozart's spirit of innovation and creativity."  The question is, which composers are thereby excluded?  The other was the similarity of my reaction to one Seinfeld had with Whatley as a Jewish comedian: that it offended him not as a Jewish person, but as a comedian.  For tonight the disappointment is not as not as much about the message as it is about the music.]

We left at around 11:30 am to have lunch with our friend Ron W in Malvern PA, and it was close to 11 pm when we got home.  A relative long day for us.  Dinner was street food in NYC.