Photos courtesy of Coral Cantigas. Artistic director Diana V. Sáez conducting

Published on: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

By David Cannon, Sentinel Arts Critic

By David Cannon

Sentinel Arts Critic

By now you no doubt have heard several versions of “Silent Night,” more than a few renditions of “Jingle Bells,” and maybe Grandma got run over by that reindeer again. For something both traditional and quite different, Coral Cantigas presented its holiday concert “Feliz Navidad” last weekend at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda.

There is always something traditional about these concerts – regular Cantigas audience members are by now familiar with the Puerto Rican carol, “Alegria, Alegria,” which opened the concert as a sing-along. There is always something different, too. This year did not start out with the traditional processional and there was a special guest for this evening.

There is still great variety within this genre. A traditional Chilean song “Que Cante el Cielo Y La Tierra” (Heaven and Earth Will Sing) was for unaccompanied voices, but the male singers at one point set up a vocal droning sound, almost like bagpipes. Other songs featured piano, guitar, or Latin percussion instruments.

Much of this music in infused with dance rhythms and festive gaiety. In fact, one song, “Vamos a Belen,” even starts out with “Let us go to Bethlehem to dance.” Even the slower songs, such as the three Villancicos (carols) arranged by Alfonso Leteller, had a lilting, pastoral feeling. How strange that the most famous song of the evening, “O Magnum Mysterium” by the Spanish Renaissance composer Victoria, was a surprisingly austere, slow madrigal unlike all the other numbers on the program.

There were two special highlights. One was “Christmas in Puerto Rico,” written by Juan Soto Jr., the father of a Cantigas member. It sounded like a Latin flavored pop song from the ‘50s, well sung by Priscilla Soto and accompanied by other members of the Soto family on strings. It’s a charming piece, sung in English, that could easily become a standard. With lines like “shivering in the snow, My Christmas now is different, the tropic breezes blow” – I am so there already, especially after last week’s weather.

The other highlight was at the end of the concert, with members of the Mario Loiederman Middle School Chamber Choir, a magnet school in Silver Spring, under the direction of Christopher Guerra. These talented young singers did several numbers by themselves – including a Renaissance tune by Praetorious called “Sing Noel,” a song called “Winter Wonderland” that is not the one you are familiar with, and even a Hanukkah song. Then both the Middle School Choir and Cantigas joined forces for the final numbers, including traditional carols from Chile and Puerto Rico.

Conductor Diana Saez did a good job leading the Cantigas chorus and then the combined forces at the end. The nature of this concert was that there were fewer opportunities for solo moments than in the past, but the Cantigas ensemble sang well throughout, whether it was the uninhibited gaiety of the final handkerchief raving “Al Llegar Aqui” or the complicated counterpoint of the Victoria.

The 2009-2010 season for Coral Cantigas continues with Songs of Freedom on March 20 and Latin American Baroque with special guest Hesperus on May 23. All performances are at the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda.

For more information, call 301-230-1361 or visit www.cantigas.org.