Holiday Music

Washington Men's Camerata

The Washington Men's Camerata, 60-strong and sonorous as only a fine men's choral group can be, opened its 20th anniversary "Christmas With the Camerata" concert at the Arlington Unitarian Church on Sunday evening with a tantalizing taste of 14th-century homophony. Encircling the audience, the singers presented two Marian hymns, the first with a quiet repose that blossomed from a gentle unison to a verse in parallel fifths to the addition of a firm and deep pedal tone from the bass voices; they then walked to their risers to the music of a cheerful conductus. It was a lovely beginning. From there, they lavished their smooth and well-balanced sonorities on a program of largely familiar Christmas fare in big (and occasionally overblown) arrangements and ended with a set of variations on "Jingle Bells" that took that ditty from operatic coloratura to bebop, with numerous detours on the way.

In his fourth year with the chorus, conductor Frank Albinder has forged himself an ensemble that sounds gorgeous. But voluptuousness alone gets old fast. In much of the evening's singing, texts (in particular, the ending consonants of words) got lost in all that richness, opportunities for drama went unseized and rhythmic passages were not always crisp.

Soprano Rosa Lamoreaux, who has been a regular soloist with the Camerata, was in fine form, as touching in "The Wexford Carol" as she was magnificently hammy in the "Jingle Bells" coloratura. Accompanist Michael Patterson provided firm support.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company