New York Classical Review

Conductor and baritone Malcolm J. Merriweather has risen rapidly to prominence on the New York choral scene. It all started ten years ago, when he became music director of the Dessoff Choirs and began an endowed professorship in the music department of CUNY’s Brooklyn College. In 2022, he added the title of director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus to his lengthening résumé.

In observance of his tenth anniversary with Dessoff and the college, Merriweather led a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor, with singers from both institutions and a professional period-instruments orchestra, Saturday afternoon at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem.

No one knows for what occasion Bach composed this monumental work, or even if there was one. He spent the better part of his last decade composing and compiling it, and at two and a half hours’ duration it was surely impractical for church use. It likely represents Bach’s vision of what an ideal Latin Mass might sound like, freed from all flesh-and-blood constraints.

Nevertheless, flesh and blood have been taking on this score in church, the concert hall and the recording studio ever since the Bach revival of the mid-19^th century. In all that time, the task has not become less daunting.

Saturday’s performance hit choppy waters right at the outset, as chorus and orchestra stepped out smartly in the “Kyrie,” but out-of-tune woodwinds proved disorienting to players and listeners alike, and Merriweather’s casual conducting style let energy drain and tempos sag.

The conductor’s podium demeanor could be described as accommodating, gently encouraging, and often a little behind the musicians, as if he were following them instead of the other way around. Later on, in the “Gloria” and again in the “Sanctus,” this sort of listening loop was likely responsible for the tempo getting slower and slower as the movement went on.

By the “Gratias agimus tibi,” the orchestra’s intonation had improved considerably, and the choir built layers of sound on rising lines, culminating in a splendid burst of timpani and three natural trumpets. This Handelian spectacular was some of the most effective music-making of the afternoon.

In general, however, while one sensed the individual desire of the musicians to put the music across, the performance would have benefited from stronger leadership to shape it and drive it forward. More clarity of texture and articulation was needed to really put the spotlight on Bach’s epochal achievement.

Vocal soloists, some professional and some from the Dessoff ranks or Brooklyn College students, were at least adequate to their roles and in some cases considerably more than that.

Melissa Attebury brought smooth articulation, expressive phrasing and power in reserve to the alto aria “Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris.”  The combination of George Jiayi Baolin’s potent bass and Megan Hurley’s hunting-horn obbligato made “Quoniam to solus sanctus” a memorable moment. And what deity wouldn’t be pleased to be praised by Jiyu Kim’s agile soprano in “Laudamus te”?

Merriweather himself laid down his baton and sang “Et in Spiritum Sanctum” in a clear, penetrating light baritone. Near the work’s close, tenor Albert Lee had vocal power to spare and a fine sense of line and ornamentation in “Benedictus.” Mezzo-soprano Patrice P. Eaton brought rounded tone and deep expression to the penultimate movement, “Agnus Dei.”

Instrumental standouts included—besides Hurley and her eye-catching, skyward-pointing horn—concertmaster Katie Nyun’s incisive and expressive violin obbligati, the mellow-toned wood flutes of Melissa Baker and Jennifer Grim, and the party sounds of Sae Hashimoto’s exuberant timpani and bold natural trumpets of Steven Marquardt, Paul Murphy and Chang Hyun Cha.

The engaged basso continuo of cellist Adrienne Hyde, harpsichordist Steven Ryan and organist Raymond Nagem provided a strong foundation for the orchestra and sensitive support for the soloists.

The splendid choral sunrise of the closing movement, “Dona nobis pacem,” left one with a sense of having contemplated a masterpiece for the ages, if not always in perfect focus. But Bach left us this mountain, and it must be climbed, again and again.