Music Review : Chanticleer’s Christmas Program a Bit Too Polished

Holiday cheer played very little part in Chanticleer’s Christmas concert Thursday night at the Wadsworth Theater. Instead, the 12-man a cappella vocal group, now in its 17th year, presented a subdued program that never soared beyond a patina of studied refinement.

Polish and admirable control oozed from every moment. The San Francisco-based ensemble brought reliable intonation, pristine enunciation and an ever-balanced blend to readings of works from the Renaissance and the 20th Century, as well as to familiar carols.

Yet technical perfection emerged as emotional detachment, even in David Conte’s “Charm Me Asleep,” based on Robert Herrick’s poem “To Music--To Becalm his Fever,” in which an ailing protagonist begs music to ease his pain by lulling him into death. Noting that the concert fell on World AIDS Recognition Day, director Joseph Jennings prefaced this piece by pausing “to remember, to reflect, to hope and, if you so desire, to pray.”

Awareness was clearly not the problem. The choice of compositions and arrangements--steadfastly conservative in their harmonies and almost all drawing on the choir’s fluid legato--contributed greatly.

Still, throughout the evening, the singers themselves--modest voices that never ventured past mezzo forte, and that consistently emphasized the higher ranges--achieved an insubstantial gloss.