~ Author: Shoshana Klein
Saturday November 8th, 2025 – The Dessoff Choirs at Brick Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue in a program entitled Resilience & Revelation.
Herbert Howells (above) has an oboe sonata that my oboe teacher in undergrad really liked, so it caught my eye when the Dessoff choirs were performing his Requiem and Magnificat last Saturday. I don’t go to choir concerts much, and tend to forget how easily they sound religious, sometimes aggressively so. I suppose I should have expected that, at least with a Requiem.
Both Howells pieces were full of lush, deep harmony and texture I don’t hear often (on account of not going to choir concerts). The Requiem is a capella, and has a different structure and text than completely traditional Requiems, from what I gather. There was also a small antiphonal choir – I think referred to as a “semichoir”, though it was unclear if this is part of the piece or an artistic decision by the performers. It’s hard for me to have an informed opinion about vocalists, but the choir had impressive control, especially in quiet moments – which creates such a different texture than orchestra.
The three Philip Glass etudes in the middle of the concert were a little out of character, but also nice variation from the choral texture. It was hard to match the polished sound of the choir, but pianist Steven Ryan had some fresh interpretation, especially of number 3, where I was able to hear different harmonies than I’m used to. He did play them in a different order than they were listed in the program!
The composers on the latter half of the program, Tania Leon and Adolphus Hailstork, were both in attendance, which was a nice surprise – both well-known names. Tania Leon’s piece It’s a journey was nice, with some sweet choir interaction and more contemporary elements than the Howells.
The Hailstork The World Called with text by Rita Dove was a very nice piece that had some incongruous organ interludes that sounded like circus music. I believe the piece was originally written for choir with orchestra, so maybe something was lost in the orchestral reduction, but I had a lot of trouble making sense of what those interludes were conveying. The soprano soloist, Nicole Osmolovskaya, was a student at Brooklyn college and did a great job.
Though I really don’t understand much about the choral music ecosystem of New York, supposedly the Dessoff choirs are some of the best in the city, and after that concert I wouldn’t have any reason to disagree!
Performance photo by Dan Wright
~ Shoshana Klein
Oberon's Glade 