Balthazar the Bold

 

If you don't know the composer name Margaret Bonds, join this listener.

Bonds most famously wrote a Christmas Cantata entitled The Ballad of the Brown King, the feature of this recording.

The work is centered on Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men who traveled from afar and brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Holy Birth. Much of the text from Langston Hughes is dedicated to that foreign King's possible African heritage, offering a proper multicultural perspective to the typically whitewashed nativity.

Bonds composed in a traditionally Romantic fashion, making the music very accessible to a wide audience. It is not exotic sounding, nor does it strike me with any particular feeling of Americana, so musical character primarily is imbued by these performers.

If I thought some of the solo features had a particular spiritual quality (the musical genre, not the religious fervor), it is probably due to the assembled African-American soloists, whose vocal qualities lead my ear that way, and powerful they can be too.

I am unfamiliar with Malcolm J. Merriweather's Dessoff Choirs, but I am mightily impressed with the choral aspects of this recording. They offer spirited performances, as well as fine ensemble work across the board. The orchestra is of a regional quality, where I could imagine a lusher, more cohesive quality, but where else are you going to hear this rare cantata?

Attached to the 24-minute cantata are some solo songs, again with a strongly topical message behind them, but with haunting, spare musical moods. I enjoy that these songs are accompanied by harp instead of piano, stirringly played by Ashley Jackson who also provides the liner notes, and the conductor of the cantata beautifully handles the baritone solo vocals.

I love hearing Bonds music, but I wish there were more. At 35 minutes, you really have to want to hear this music. I am here to say you should hear this music, but I think this recording would have been much better off waiting patiently to be added to their later recording of Bond's Credo as a 2CD set.

 

Listen on YouTube

 

 

Works
Ballad of the Brown King (23.34)
To a Brown Girl Dead (2.06)
Winter Moon (1.15)
Three Dream Portraits (7.00)

Soloists
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Noah Stewart, tenor

Performers
Ashley Jackson, harp
Dessoff Choirs
Dessoff Orchestra
Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor

Label: Avie
Year: 2019
Total Timing: 35.16

 

 

With a short runtime, I fear many will pass on this music.

Yet, they will miss out on fine choral singing and a wonderful Christmas Cantata to discover.

Kudos to all involved!

 

 

 

 

Find more Bonds recordings HERE!