The fall musical season appears to be one of anniversaries, with the San Diego Symphony touting the centennial of its founding (at a December, 1910, concert at the then new U. S. Grant Hotel), and the San Diego Master Chorale trumpeting its 50^th anniversary season, based on its official organization in 1961. We have an entire season in front of us to evaluate whether these musical ensembles become energized by their hsitory to chart bold paths into the future, or whether these anniversary festivities are just diversions for listless arts organizations grasping at any excuse for attention.

Although the Master Chorale appears most frequently in conjunction with the San Diego Symphony—at one time it was named the Symphonic Chorale—Saturday (October 16) the Master Chorale under Music Director Gary McKercher gave a solo concert at College Avenue Baptist Church. McKercher chose a very retro choral assortment program, a collage of shorter works from different historical periods and national styles with no evident overriding theme, the sort of program touring college choirs made popular in the mid-20^th century.

This format is a delight for lovers of choral music, for it can serve up in a single concert the contrasting joys of Russian composer Georgy Sviridov’s clever, onomatopoetic “Magpie Chatter,” Argentine master Alberto Ginastera’s two profound motets from “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” Johann Pachelbel’s rousing double chorus of “Jauchzet dem Herrn” and other gems in a single evening. But this approach brings with it an expectation of the polish and prowess a touring college choir typically displays, and sadly, the Master Chorale proved uneven in the quality of its delivery.

On the plus side, the Master Chorale’s finely-tuned, moving account of Ginastera’s beautifully wrought counterpoint in the “Jeremiah” motets, its solid craft in Benjamin Britten’s early “Te Deum in C” and Gottfried Homilius’ short motet “Deo dicamus gratias” demonstrated how much McKercher has improved the basic sound and technique of the choir. Pachelbel’s big double choir setting of Psalm 100 displayed apt animation in the opening polyphonic section, although I would quibble with McKercher’s over-long legato phrasing, and focused mightily in the more stentorian declamations at the conclusion. For an American choir, its German pronunciation was better than most, i.e. you could actually make out the consonants most of the time.

But the five-movement pastiche taken from Henry Purcell’s lengthy “Hail, Bright Cecilia,” also known as the “Ode to St. Cecilia,” proved both a stylistic mish-mash and a minefield of disasters for the under-prepared soloists. McKercher showed little affinity for Purcell’s late-17^th century melodic style, a distinctive, short-phrased declamation that is quite unlike the sinuous lines of J. S. Bach and Handel, and he left his choral soloists adrift in a style-free “please, let’s just get through this movement” limbo that was unfortunate, to say the least.

Some of the Purcell movements were inexplicably accompanied by piano and others were appropriately accompanied by the organ, Purcell’s own instrument and the instrument consistently lauded in the poetry of this “Ode.” Assistant Music Director Martin Green's organ accompaniments were stylish and cleanly executed, but the contrast of these keyboard sounds was disconcerting, especially knowing that the piano was invented after Purcell’s demise.

The choral excerpt “Under the Willow Tree” from Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa is one of the composer’s weakest offerings, a piece that few conductors program today for obvious reasons. Perhaps the Master Chorale can convince the San Diego Symphony to program Barber’s “Prayers of Kierkegaard,” a sadly neglected choral tapestry of great depth that shows what Barber could do with choral forces.

We heard the premiere of David Conte’s anthem “To Music,” based on the poetry of Henry Van Dyke, commissioned by the Master Chorale. In a short introduction before the piece, the composer stated that his intention was to “portray the consoling power of music,” and by that standard his new work proved compelling. Flowing melodies that rarely sustained a dissonant clash or flexed an athletic muscle brought to mind the heyday of Randall Thompson. Knowing the rhythmic sophistication of some of Conte’s vocal and choral works, “To Music” struck me as Conte-light. I was expecting more from this sophisticated San Francisco composer.

The San Diego master Chorale will repeat this concert on October 24 at the La Jolla Presbyterian Church.

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