Cantus opens season, introduces new singers

For its fall concerts, entitled "Anthem," heard Thursday night at the Cowles Center, Cantus explores the reasons that people sing together across cultures. It uses the title term loosely: not all are robust numbers; there are folk and religious songs as well, many examples of ways to share music.

The evening got off to a rough start, with the 19th-century secular anthem, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" In part due to the arrangement, the performers were too focused on accurately expressing the complex harmonies, robbing the song of its passion and thrust.

Likewise with "Waltzing Matilda." The overcomplicated arrangement spoiled the rousing Australian folk song.

By contrast, the Irish folk song, "Danny Boy," was sung with utmost simplicity and became one the most affecting numbers of the evening.

Cantus has lost a third of its members since last season, including the last founding member. Never mind. The men have never sounded better. They delivered a brighter sound, with a sharper edge and a richer resonance than ever before.

And they have the same intellectual rigor they've always had. They sing in more than 12 languages besides English, including Japanese, Gaelic, Latin, Czech, Zulu, Hebrew, Balinese and Punjabi.

There were Japanese and Gaelic work songs, a Hebrew mourning piece, a Punjabi wedding song, and an amazing late-19th-century African anthem, "Nkosi sikelel i'Afrika (God Bless Africa)," in three languages, written to unite warring tribes.

There was powerful Western music as well, like "Sederunt," a 12th-century Latin liturgical setting, likely the first piece of polyphony ever written. Particularly moving was "Ave Maria," by Leoš Janáček, a deeply spiritual setting to rival the more familiar Schubert. And there was an example of British patriotism, set to "Jupiter" from Holst's "The Planets."

Cantus member Chris Foss arranged a powerful medley of antiwar songs from the Civil War and World War I. There was also some classic Americana, a barbershop quartet arrangement of "Keep America Singing." The ensemble also showed a sense of humor: not only singing but enacting a Balinese Monkey Chant.

This was a strong concert, both intellectually and emotionally engaging.

William Randall Beard writes about music and theater.