Under the direction of Sharon Hansen, the Choral Artists have developed into a refined and confident ensemble . . . the group continues to deliver imaginative - and in this case, amusing - programs. Charles Grosz, Shepherd Express, April 11, 2006
Breakthrough musical group of the year: Sharon Hansen's Milwaukee Choral Artists, a small choir of women, has always been good. But their Liederabend concert (Oct. 14, Woman's Club of Wisconsin) was a revelation. The pitch, the blend and the balance made harmonies gorgeous, and their legato style and dramatic phrasing made the art song deeply expressive. The choir sang with all the unanimity, freedom and flex of a great solo recitalist. - Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 26, 2005
The Choral Artists sang Medieval monophony and organum superbly by way of backing up the Boston Camerata on a fine Early Music Now program. - Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 4, 2005
Choral Artists lend voices to works of Romanticism Singers bring skill, deft interpretation to program of German songs
By TOM STRINI
Journal Sentinel music critic
Posted: Oct. 14, 2005
Friday evening, Sharon Hansen and her Milwaukee Choral Artists did not sound like a chorus at all. They approached their "Liederabend" - their evening of German Romantic song - like a soloist approaching a recital, to spellbinding effect.
The group comprises 17 women, all with trained voices and most with solo credits on their résumés. Instead of straightening tone for better blend and clearer harmonies, they sang like a collective soloist. Vibrato, usually unwelcome in a choral setting, was abundant and disciplined. This was no group wobble, but a controlled and unanimous flutter that warmed and varied the music at every turn. I've never heard a chorus sound quite like this.
The singers knew the music thoroughly. You could hear their confidence in their relaxed, generous vocalizing. You could see it, too, in their eyes - they were always up and focused on Hansen, the Choral Artists founder and excellent conductor.
Hansen brought a soloist's rhythmic flex and dynamics into play. Romantic surge charged the music to just the correct, modest extent. Hansen freed the rhythm, again to apt and modest degree, to better capture the speech patterns of the poetry or to linger a moment over a telling word or harmony. In accompaniment or obbligato, pianist Ingrid Hanson-Popp, harpist Ann Lobotzke and horn players Greg Flint and Craig Davis, like the singers, slipped neatly into Hansen's thinking.
These songs - by both Clara and Robert Schumann, Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Schubert and Brahms - represent the intimate side of Romanticism, its private passions. Wagner, say, bowls you over with the force of his feeling. These composers, in this music, crack open the door to their hearts and let you peek in.
The Choral Artists sang these melancholy, nostalgic meditations on the passing of beauty, love, spring and life in the spirit in which the composers wrote them. Their sound, quivering and poignant as the last golden leaf on the tree, and their pliant, patient pace and phrasing invited us into the music.
No one with a heart or an ear for beauty would resist such an invitation.
This program took place in the ballroom of the Woman's Club of Wisconsin. E-mail Tom Strini at tstrini@journalsentinel.com.
