GAY MEN'S CHORUS OF SOUTH FLORIDA JOINS SYMPHONY OF THE AMERICAS FOR VOCIFEROUS
EVENING OF SONG (3-19-13)
BY Lawrence Budmen
The Power of 150 Voices Singing! was the appropriate theme of the Symphony of the
Americas' program on Tuesday evening at the Broward Center's Amaturo Theater. Under the artistic
direction of Gordon Roberts, the Gay Men's Chorus of South Florida joined Maestro James BrooksBruzzese and the orchestra for a vociferous evening of choral music from both classical and popular
genres.
The Fort Lauderdale based men's chorus makes a mighty sound. Superbly honed by
Roberts, the group's finely blended voices can rouse to full throated perorations or sing caressingly soft
vocal lines with acute musicality. Brooks-Bruzzese opened the program with the Hallelujah Chorus from
Beethoven's oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. Composed in 1801, the oratorio was one of
Beethoven's greatest successes but, like the master from Bonn's other religious and secular cantatas,
has fallen off the repertoire radar. These works show a more intimate side of Beethoven's wide ranging
genius. In sheer fervor and complexity of choral writing, the Hallelujah Chorus prefigures the finale of
Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. Brooks-Bruzzese led a rousing performance, the contrapuntal voicing
clear and precise, a testament to the chorus' musical discipline.
The multi talented Roberts is a composer, arranger, pianist and former associate of such
music legends as mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel and conductor-composer-educator Leonard Bernstein.
Roberts took the podium for an eloquent version of Wheels of a Dream from the Broadway musical
Ragtime by Stephen Flaherty with two fine vocal soloists from the chorus. Roller Coaster from Roberts'
2004 musical Friday Saturday Sunday is an old fashioned, early twentieth century Tin Pan Alley tune,
sung with swinging verve by the chorus. Roberts and the male chorus captured the nostalgic verve of
Hollywood composer Nacio Herb Brown's Singing in the Rain, a chorus member adding a Gene Kelley
song and tap routine for good measure. Joseph Martin's luminous The Awakening soared in full voiced
exuberance, the chorus and orchestra producing mellifluous harmonies. The text's final repeated
phrases "Let music live!" rang out like an anthem of hope and joy, a wonderful conclusion to the
concert's first half.
The chorus voiced the lyrical strophes of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's With a Song
in My Heart and the witticism of Jule Styne's Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friends beguilingly and with
idiomatic style, capturing the lilt and song filled aura of Broadway's golden era. A beautifully balanced
rendition of the Louis Armstrong classic What a Wonderful World and a haunting traversal of the Harold
Arlen-E.Y. Harburg standard Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz exuded uplift and exultation
under Roberts' astute direction.
Brooks-Bruzzese led the chorus and orchestra in a stirring performance of The Battle
Hymn of the Republic, the finely terraced dynamic gradations of the choral singing and vividly colored
instrumental playing felicitous and splendidly coordinated. The terrific arrangement was by Peter
Wilhousky, one of America's legendary choral conductors in the first half of the twentieth century. An
exhilarating version of America the Beautiful that did not leave a dry eye in the house concluded the
program.
Delightful orchestral interludes abounded throughout the evening. Roberts led the
Symphony of the Americas in a bright, colorful tribute to pops and Hollywood icon John Williams
featuring themes from Star Wars, E.T., Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He captured the lyrical
pulse and quirky wit of Bernstein's Overture to Candide and imbued Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 4
with an extra dose of Magyar paprika, the orchestra's strings rich and lustrous.
Brooks-Bruzzese brought snap and songful hues to Gershwin's Overture to Girl Crazy
and swagger to the Coronation March from Meyerbeer's opera Le Prophete. John Kander and Fred Ebb's
New York, New York really sizzled, the symphony's brass and percussion having a field day with Bob
Cerulli's great arrangement. As an encore, Brooks-Bruzzese conducted a barn burning rendition of
Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever.
A wonderful concert of orchestral and choral standards, the Symphony of the Americas
will repeat the program 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24 at the Amaturo Theater in Ft. Lauderdale. For tickets
and information, call 954-335-7002 or see www.SymphonyoftheAmericas.org.