March 10-16, 2005

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Choral Arts Society

classical

With all due respect to the formal religious rituals that incorporate music, it is always a wonder to view the interaction of great composers and the spiritual impulse. The result is not always doctrinaire, but great, wondrous beauty in the guise of religious structures has poured out of the giants of the art, including Mozart, Beethoven and Verdi. The Choral Arts Society, led by their new director, Matthew Glandorf, brings us into the modern era with a program of devotional music drawn from a global expanse of new and ancient influences ranging from African drum choruses to the Jewish choral music of Ernest Bloch. The concert concludes with a work that purports to point to the future of the genre. Sanctus Pieces, by Benjamin Broening for choir, organ, mezzo-soprano soloists, children's choir and electronic tape, matches Western concepts of spirituality with the devices of Japanese sonorities and harmonies. Hopefully, the ultimate message will be that the appreciation of music, like life itself, deserves an open mind. And let us say amen.

Fri., March 11, 8 p.m., $18-$30, Philadelphia Cathedral, 38th and Chestnut sts., 215-545-8634, www.choralarts.com.

—Peter Burwasser