Last night was the first of two performances of the Fauré Requiem by the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, conducted by Tim Carney, with soloists Martina Bingham and Buz Tennent. This was by far the biggest concert crowd since the pandemic, and people even sat in the chairs above the board room (which I don’t think they were supposed to do!)

In addition to the Fauré “Requiem” (which is the only work I played on the program), there were also works by Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Claudin de Sermisy (1490-1562), Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521), Pierre Passereau (c. 1495-1547), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Charles Dumont (b. 1929), Michel Vaucaire (1904-1980), and Jacques Brel (1929-1978). In addition, the choir sang Morten Lauridsen’s (b. 1943) “Dirait-on” in French (Lauridsen is American, but this song has French lyrics.)

Judy Barrett, violinist, played the beautiful “Meditation” from Thaïs as well as the violin solos in the Fauré. Apparently the piece was written only one year after the “Requiem.”

What I didn’t realize was that the all-French program was a memorial to Natalie Mahoney, who died on December 5, 2020, and who loved all things French. She was born on January 26, 1936 in Riverdale, NY and grew up in Kansas. A graduate of Northwestern University, she joined the Stanford Research Institute in San Francisco, and later, the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol in Washington, D.C. In 1970 she settled in Honolulu with her husband, Thomas E. Mahoney. They spent summers on their barge, the Aloha, navigating the canals of Europe. After Tom died in 2010, Natalie continued to divide her time between Hawaii and her barge in France.

Fluent in French, she was a member of Alliance Française of Hawaii. A music lover, she supported and volunteered with the Morning Music Club, Chamber Music Hawaii, the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Associates, Hawaii Opera Theatre and Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble. She was a founding member of the Silver Foxes senior performing group.

She left a generous bequest to Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble and this concert was a memorial to her and her love of all things French.

In general things mostly went okay in the Fauré, although I only figured out afterwards why I felt a little unsettled. You see, with my back to everyone, the only view of the conductor I had was through a mirror, and things weren’t the same as when we had practiced the day before. I finally figured out that it was because our dress rehearsal was in the afternoon, when sunlight came through the large back window. Of course, last night’s performance started at 5:30 and already getting dark, when there was no sunlight in the room! I couldn’t see Tim Carney, the director, as well as I had seen him in the mirror the day before.

I guess this is what happens when you have old eyes!

I really enjoyed listening to the second half of the program, which included solos by Sarah Connelly, mezzo-soprano, and Brian Minnick, tenor. I don’t think I’ve ever heard French sung so FAST (!) as Brian had to do in Jacque Brel’s “Valse a mille temps” (1959).

The program repeats next Saturday, April 1st, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kailua, at 7:30 pm. For me, it will be completely different with a different organ (3 manual Allen digital) but at least I’ll be facing the conductor and won’t have to use a mirror!