Henri Chalet leads the Choir of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, in concert at Church of the Incarnation, on Oct. 24, 2023.At least on this side of the pond, we tend to associate great and vital choral traditions with Germany and England. France? Not so much.
The French language, with all those nasalized vowels and muffled consonants, isn’t the most natural for choral tone production. But a 2018 concert by the Choir of Notre Dame, in the pre-fire cathedral, made me rethink my expectations. This was an accomplished and expressive group — a large one for that concert — so interest was piqued for the choir’s Tuesday night concert at Church of the Incarnation.
Gabriel Fauré, organist of the Paris church of La Madeleine from 1896 until becoming director of the Paris Conservatoire nine years later, was represented by two works well known here: the Requiem and the. The latter, setting Racine’s French paraphrase of a Latin hymn, was performed with singers spread along the church’s side aisles.For my money this was a misjudgment, since one heard the nearest singers out of proportion — and blend. Repeating it for an encore didn’t help.
Chalet’s expressive conducting coaxed a huge dynamic range from singers who appeared to be in their 20s or maybe just beyond. With subtle vibrato here and there, the sound lacked the velvet finish of the best British choirs, but the singing was fresh and vividly characterized.Some of the fortissimos were scaled to a larger room than Incarnation, and they seemed out of place in Fauré's gentler art. But there was some very quiet singing, too.