In 2021, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic first asked composer Carlos Simon to write a new score, he was not sure what artistic direction he should take. Composing another concerto or symphony would certainly have fluffed his ego. But, as he relayed on the Black Music Seen podcast, he rather wanted to stretch the limits of his voice. To do so, Simon thought he ought to lean into his roots.
But with the Good News Mass, the BSO’s Composer Chair didn’t merely blend the gospel fervor of his southern roots with Catholic liturgical traditions, he also merged familiar and transcendent music that seeks common themes of grace, gratitude, and even love.
“It was the piece I always wanted to write,” Simon told the audience ahead of the work’s Boston premiere Thursday night at Symphony Hall. Under direction of Thomas Wilkins, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a bevy of guests conveyed all its authentic power and reverence.
Yet, given its personal flavor, Good News Mass neither resorts to idiomatic cliche nor overt sentimentality. The score brings together a gospel choir, praise-band-style rhythm section topped off by Hammond organ, soulful vocalists, and the traditional symphony orchestra in ways theatrical but sincere. Simon drew upon his experiences growing up in the Black Pentecostal church. In this reimagining, the gospel choir sings in full throaty fervor. The Hammond organ, played by Simon himself, weaves bluesy passages between statements delivered by a guest preacher. Bass and drums supply a sturdy groove while orchestral brass shout overhead. All the while, strings and woodwinds frame the soloists in a shimmering sonic backdrop.
While his libretto draws heavily upon evangelical Christianity, he largely elides references to Christ and salvation in favor of broader human connections. But that still left room for Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who performed the role of the preacher, to speak with enough Old Testament conviction and New Testament mystery to draw a few “Amens” from the audience.
The companion film by Melina Matsoukas delved even deeper in the Black American lived experience. We see slow-motion images of children dressed and angels running down a crowded street, stills of people caught up in religious ecstasy, standing with hands in the air. The most powerful images show a man bearing a cross while walking in his neighborhood, a reflection, no doubt, of the systemic burdens placed upon Black Americans.
That subject is key to Simon’s My Ancestor’s Gift and Requiem for the Enslaved, which lean hard on Black symbols as the music channels jazz legends like Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard, who were unapologetic about their identity. But Good News Mass makes identity into a vehicle capable of reaching outward. In effect, Simon’s is channeling more than just faith, by conveying universal feelings of ecstatic gratitude and infectious joy.
Thursday night’s vocalists, all drawn from the gospel tradition, captured those fiery qualities. Melvin Crispell III’s smooth-toned alto revealed the prayerful pleading of “Save Me Lord.” Jekalyn Carr’s soprano soared over the shuffle rhythms of “Oh Give Thanks.” And tenor Zebulon Ellis sang “Promises of God” with breathy wistfulness, his falsetto drawing “wows” and applause as it rose high above the BSO strings.
The orchestra matched the furor if not always meshing with the style. If the brass couldn’t always slot into the rhythmic groove, individual players rose to the occasion in feature moments. Principal trombonist Toby Oft tore through his solo with the warbling growls of a New Orleans parade. Trumpet Thomas Siders sounded out his jazzy licks with clarion assurance. Oboist Keisuke Wakao and violinist Alexander Velinzon traded bluesy lines in the orchestral riff on “Amazing Grace.” The Good News Gospel Chorus, prepared by Dennis Slaughter, sang with the rapt persuasion of a Sunday sermon. Conductor Wilkins let it all unfold naturally.
The first half sought a different answer to what composer David Lang calls “a crisis in compassion.”
Lang’s poor hymnal, a choral setting of texts as far ranging as the Bible, Tolstoy, and Elizabeth Warren, makes up the composer’s response to a world gone mad. He eschews grandiosity in favor of acetic pietism. Prayerful and serene over ten selected movements (the full piece lasts about an hour), rarely rising above hushed tones that are geared toward the immediate moment. Phrases, set off by pauses, hover in the air like half-formed thoughts. But the effect can be gorgeous. Lines routines come to rest on ear-stinging harmonies that he leaves unresolved.
On Thursday night, the Philadelphia-based ensemble The Crossing sang with a delicate blend that could be felt as much as heard. “I know I should,” a kind of Credo about being kind, flowed with soft radiance. Repeated phrases echoed like mantras in “The least of these,” told from the perspective of Christ as a stranger. “Open your hands” unfolded in gentle waves of dissonance.
But, here too came moments of gospel-like intensity. “What is mine,” a nod to shape-note singing, brought it all home with altar-call zeal. Lang may tend toward introspection. But his celebratory zest is just as true and personal. And that’s about as authentic as one can get.
