Benefit performance of difficult Bach work is magnet for Valley musical talent

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JERREY ROBERTS

Glasses rest on the sheet music for Bach's Mass in B minor during a rehearsal break Wednesday at Northampton Community Music Center.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Deb Orgera of Leeds, from left, Carla Cooke of Northampton, Steven Williams of Amherst and Matt Behnke of Westfield rehearse for Bach's Mass in B minor Wednesday at Northampton Community Music Center.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Arianne Abela, of New Haven, Conn., conducts the chorale during a rehearsal Wednesday.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Steven Williams of Amherst, front row from left, Matt Behnke of Westfield, Ben Vincent of Amherst and Michael Walsh of Leeds sing during a rehearsal for Bach's Mass in B Minor at Northampton Community Music Center.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Deb Orgera of Leeds, from left, Carla Cooke of Northampton, Steven Williams of Amherst and Matt Behnke of Westfield rehearse.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Brit Albritton, top, of Northampton, the organizer of the concert, sings with other members of the chorus during a rehearsal for Bach's Mass in B minor Wednesday at Northampton Community Music Center.

Every passion has its pinnacle: running the Boston Marathon, performing at Carnegie Hall, making an Olympic team, climbing Mount Everest. For lovers of classical music, that Holy Grail is Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the great composer's final works, finished shortly before his death in 1750.

In an unusual production, Johann Sebastian Bach's ambitious work will be performed Sunday at St. Mary's Church on Elm Street by a choral group of 50. The singers - many of whom have not sung together before - will be accompanied by a full orchestra of about 30.

Concert organizer and chorus member Brit Albritton laughingly calls this a "pickup orchestra" of professional musicians donating their time to raise money for the Northampton Community Music Center.

Albritton says a full production like this would normally cost about $10,000 to stage, after paying musicians and singers, renting a venue and promoting the concert.

The cost of this production? Nothing. In addition to the musicians' gratis work, St. Mary's is letting the group use its sanctuary at no cost and the musical scores have been borrowed.

While local musicians taking part may want to help the music center, the draw for singers and musicians from throughout New England is something else.

"People are thrilled - it's one of the greatest works in human history. It's just gorgeous," said Albritton. "It's one of the sublime great works of human genius."

Over two hours, Bach's Mass in B minor showcases a chorus with multiple soloists singing in Latin, alongside orchestral work featuring complicated arrangements with challenging solo parts.

"Everyone says this is Bach's greatest work," said Arianne Abela, who will conduct. "I know a lot of instrumentalists and singers who would die to be able to perform it and I'm really lucky to be able to conduct it."

Professional musician Gregory Hayes, who will play the organ in Sunday's production, called it "one of the greatest works of western civilization."

And if that sounds a tad overstated, well, apparently it's not.

"It's just something you really have to contemplate why this is here and when you contemplate why it is here, you have to contemplate why you are here," said Hayes. "You can't take this lightly."

Planning for Sunday's concert started out lightly, though. How this production came to be is a one-thing-led-to-another story if there ever was one.

Just three weeks ago, Albritton, who had taken part in the Hampshire Choral Society's production of the Mass last year, thought it would be fun to pull "a few" singers together to sing it around a piano. A simple production, just for the fun of it.

Albritton has sung with Abela, a Smith College graduate who is now in a master's degree program in conducting at Yale University.

He asked whether she would be up for a return to Northampton to conduct a small performance of the Mass.

Abela was game and knew of friends who would join in. One of those friends had a mother who is a professional musician, who asked if they'd be using any musicians.

"So I figured what the heck," said Albritton.

After a flurry of emails and telephone calls, a full orchestra - and a choir of 50 - had been assembled.

"All of a sudden we have an entirely full orchestra of all volunteers - it's really incredible," said Abela. "I'm astounded. I don't know how this happened."

Draw is the music

One of the musicians, Kristin Lipkens, who plays and teaches the oboe privately and as adjunct faculty at Smith College, didn't think long before she signed on.

In fact, she told Albritton, some oboists would pay to play Bach's Mass because the oboe parts, she said, "are to die for."

After she agreed to perform, Lipkens had to scramble to find an oboe d'amore, a kind more suitable to the music, but which she does not own.

The next problem she encountered was the flu, but she's hoping to be well enough by Sunday to play.

She'll be disappointed if she isn't, but is not worried about finding a replacement.

"Since we oboists are willing to pay to play, there will be somebody who will be willing to step in," she said.

Albritton tried to recruit singers who had already performed the Mass; many of the musicians have performed parts of it, at least. A series of hastily scheduled rehearsals have worked segments of the piece, but just one rehearsal has gathered all singers and instrumentalists.

"It's a little scary, but I think it will come together," said Abela, 23, who performed the B minor Mass with a group from Yale this spring, touring in Korea and China.

For those performances, she was part of the chorus, so Sunday will be her first time conducting. She is, she freely admits, "pretty nervous."

Amid anxiety, there is great excitement.

Christine Mortensen, a French horn player, said she's thrilled to take part. Like many of the solo parts, the French horn segment is complex - Abela calls it the most difficult French horn part in the history of music.

This does not seem to intimidate Mortensen, who says she knows it's challenging, "but it's a really fun part." When she's not playing the horn, she will be singing in the chorus.

"It's so exciting to be a part of something that's so much bigger than yourself," she said. "It's a monumental work. It's just a really glorious piece."

Hard work is key

The strains of that glorious music, alternately pensive, haunting, joyful and upbeat, could be heard Wednesday night as about 40 singers practiced in a performance space at the South Street music center.

And while they may have been having fun, it was clear this practice was also plain hard work - with many of them showing up after a full day at work.

With Abela gently prodding and warmly encouraging, the singers repeated sections of the work, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, always concentrating intensely. Women had pencils stuck in their hair, for easy access when Abela instructed them to make notations in their scores.

Abela would praise their work, and then ask for more, softening her instructions a bit with a "I'm being really picky for a second, really picky."

She made suggestions about what they should practice at home. She wasted no time guiding singers through the rehearsal, telling them what she wanted, without being discouraging.

"That's so good, that's really really good. Oh, it's sooo beautiful," Abela said. "And one more picky thing..."

Meanwhile, as the performance date drew closer, there were minor crises for Albritton to resolve, like finding the 275-page conductor's score for Abela (borrowed from Hampshire Choral Society Director Allan Taylor), and finding replacements for a few instrumentalists.

He also had to replace a musician who dropped out after learning the production will not use period instruments.

"People have their very particular notions about how things should be done," he said. "These are professional musicians who are for the most part putting aside their musical snobbery because they love the music and because it's a great cause."

Clearly, Albritton is amazed that everything has fallen into place with amazing speed and luck.

"The thought of just getting together with a bunch of musicians to play the Bach B minor, who wouldn't do it," said Lipkens, the oboe player. "It's summertime, it's easygoing, it's awesome music and it's for a good cause."

Albritton is hoping the production will appeal to people who may not normally gravitate towards classical music because it is a rare opportunity.

"This is like the Grand Canyon of classical music. It's one of the great works of human genius," he said.

"Whatever you think about classical music, you owe it to yourself to check it out."