MUSIC REVIEWS : Generous Sampler by Master Chorale

The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s program “From Chant to Broadway,” on Saturday night at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, traced no musicological thread from the 12th Century to present day. In fact, music director Paul Salamunovich might have more accurately called the presentation “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.”

But the wide-ranging musical agenda never suffered from lack of focus. It achieved integrity through strongly committed yet perfectly at ease music-making, equally effective in Victoria’s “Ave Maria” or Menken’s “Under the Sea.”

This 24-member contingent of the full-sized chorale didn’t always produce the luxury of sound or perfect blend of the big group. (The Ford acoustics and amplification were no help.) Strong voices were on display, though, and there was a consistent, generous expressiveness to the singing. These musicians seemed to probe into the heart of every piece along the way. Securely inside the music, they never had to force a point, or fake one.

Highlights included Thompson’s “Alleluia,” in a performance encompassing non-vibrato pianissimo to trumpeting forte, and Haydn’s “Te Deum,” vigorously yet gracefully rendered, and crisply propulsed by pianist Maryanne Ivanoff. Genuine feeling and velvety phrasing revived “Over the Rainbow,” “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and “Danny Boy.” Folk songs and short works by Monteverdi, Handel, Bruckner and Vaughan Williams were also sympathetically sung, the concert proper ending with a tasteful arrangement of “Show Boat” numbers.

In encore, the chorale dashingly pattered “Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be” and “Ghospodi Pomiluy.”