 |
ALL TOGETHER NOW: Sano conducts
a recording session.
Glenn Matsumura |
conductor steve sano raised
his arms, then stopped. Taking car keys out of his pocket,
he laid them on a nearby pew. There would be no jingle-jangles
in this recording.
“Take 201. Rolling,” the publisher shouted
from the west transept. Seated behind a mixer, recorder
and power conditioner, Robert Schuneman was listening
for the occasional stray G where a G sharp was indicated.
But there was little to critique in the Stanford Chamber
Chorale’s performance of Christmas works by San
Francisco composer Kirke Mechem. “The Christ child
lay on Mary’s lap,” 22 chorale members sang,
accompanied by pianist Laura Dahl and standing in a
tight horseshoe on the white marble steps that lead
to the chancel of Memorial Church. “And all the
stars looked down,” they concluded, as angels
in cerulean blue mosaic tiles gazed down on them.
The CD, to be released in August, will be the first
commercial album of Mechem’s holiday works. Mechem,
’51, and Schuneman, MA ’58, who is president
of Boston-based E. C. Schirmer Music Company, approached
Sano, MA ’91, DMA ’94, with the idea for
the recording project last year. “It’s a
huge honor to be involved,” says the associate
professor of music and director of choral studies. “Mechem
is a great friend of the department and has enormous
renown and recognition in the choral music community.”
“This is a wonderful bunch of singers—one
of the best Steve has ever had,” says Mechem.
He did not attend the January recording sessions, he
says, because having the composer in the house tends
to “shut down creativity” and sometimes
turns performers into automatons.
Schuneman was returning to the church where he’d
once subbed for the late Herb Nanney, MA ’51,
a professor of music who served as University organist
for 38 years before his retirement in 1985. “The
sound has changed since the building was cleaned and
acoustic material was removed during the renovation,”
Schuneman says. “It’s warmer and much more
open today.”
It’s also warm enough, in a temperature sense,
that two members of the Chamber Chorale chose to stand
barefooted for three hours each evening of the weeklong
session. But junior Alison Whipple brought wool socks
to wear, in place of clacking heels: “I didn’t
want to make any noise.”
Bass Michael Mastrandrea, a postdoc in environmental
science and policy who has been singing with the group
since he was a junior, is the appointed “chorale
king,” having recorded two previous CDs. The Mechem
material “really takes a lot of concentration,”
says Mastrandrea, ’00, PhD ’04. “It’s
precise and unforgiving in some ways.”
Sano, unfazed by the omnidirectional microphones, coaxed
luscious tones from his performers as they gathered
in the softly lit chancel for the a cappella portions
of the recording. “Don’t let it die,”
he warned about the energy required for one final verse.
“Get richer and warmer so you’re in good
shape for a strong ‘peace on earth.’” |
