By Reg Huston
The Camerata Singers, under the solid conducting and leadership of John Koza, presented yet another fine concert to start off the Christmas season. With a running theme centered on “A Spotless Rose,†the grace of the Virgin Mary was compared and contrasted by offering musical settings on that theme and, often, several settings of the same text. It was interesting and satisfying to hear how different composers from different eras and from many different countries treated the same message. The program should have included an atlas as we heard music from England (Joubert, Holst, Howells and Britten), Germany (Praetorius, Berger), Sweden (Jalkeus), Norway (Kverno), Russia (Stravinsky), Estonia (Part), Spain (Guerrero, de Victoria), Hungary (Kodaly) and Iceland (Sigurbjornsson) all with a little Dutch (Bremer) throw in. There was no “Jingle Bells†here!
