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CLASSICAL MUSIC

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Monday, June 13, 2005; C04

Palestrina Choir

The Washington Early Music Festival, now in its second summer, is a young institution celebrating very old music. This year, the festival theme is "Music From Spain and its Colonies," some of which the Palestrina Choir explored in its Saturday night concert at St. John's Catholic Church. The choir -- 12 unaccompanied voices strong -- sang motets and hymns by Tomas Luis de Victoria, a Spanish liturgical composer from the 16th century and a contemporary of the choir's namesake, the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

The individual works -- the motets "Ne timeas, Maria" and "Sancta Maria," for example -- tend to blend together, but the sound is unique to this type of music. The singers use no vibrato, which makes the sound pure and clean, like tracing a finger along the edge of a water glass.

The potential downside to no vibrato and no instruments is that the choir is entirely exposed, and every slip of intonation becomes immediately obvious -- a cracked jar among crystal. But the Palestrina Choir was nearly perfect, with only the occasional hairline fracture. They have an exceptional technique and sound, which, combined with the beautiful performance space of St. John's, gave the audience a taste of the transcendent effect of this music.

-- Claire Marie Blaustein

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201442.html