Not very imaginative, I have to say. What will they perform next season? One or two of The Big Three again?

Gone are choral cantatas (Bach and others) and oratorios (other than the over-performed and public addiction to Messiah) and other symphonic choral works. No RVW “A Sea Symphony” or Mendelssohn’s Elias or anything else. Apparently the US short attention span public can’t handle anything other then The Big Three.

No, these days, when a symphonic choral work is performed — on the rare occasion — it’s most predictably one of The Big Three.

The Big Three are the 3 choral works that have survived — out of all of the symphonic choral repertoire — and are selected for performance WHEN and IF a symphonic choral work is programmed these days.

So the San Francisco Symphony Chorus will be performing 1) Beethoven’s Ninth, 2) Orff’s Carmina Burana and 3) the rut known as Messiah (of course). No need to mention the composer of Messiah, right? Everybody knows that having his name cemented on everyone’s brain since Messiah is and has been performed every holiday season for ions, at the neglect of other equally fine or even better, in my opinion, symphonic choral works. Frankly, Messiah is over-rated. If I don’t hear it again, I’ll be fine with that and I say that from having performed the work several times with major symphony orchestras and Orchestra Choruses and in major concert halls. Messiah continues to be programmed because the sheeple continue to buy tickets for it because it’s one of those silly and monotonous traditions connected with the holiday season. Just like other sad traditions connected with the same holiday. Such as the “Christmas” and “Easter” Christians who only show up at Mass on those two High Holy Days, thinking they can fool The Holy Trininty by going to church on those days. The Holy Trinity is not fooled by these shallow and superficial fake Christians. Sheeple, in other words. The same for the Messiah crowd. They’re sheeple. They will applaud for anything.

The Symphony Chorus is also performing Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe — not much to do in that — and that’s about it, as I recall.

Considering the high caliber of choristers chosen for the Symphony Chorus, I guess they will be utterly bored by such a mostly boring and lack-luster season of works that most of the esteemed choristers could likely perform “in their sleep.”

But, in the States, that’s why symphonic choral music has been reduced to. Of the major orchestras in the States that I looked at, Norman MacKenzie’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus have the best choral season for the 2023-24 season. Surprisingly, they have Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis programmed for their season.

In my former home, the District of Columbia, they have three Orchestra Choruses who are invited to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra on occasion since the NSO — by choice — does not have its own Symphony Chorus. The idea has been proposed many times but rejected. So for the 2023-24 season as memory serves the Choral Arts Society of Washington (CASW) have two performances with the National Symphony Orchestra (Rachmaninov Колокола, Kolokola/The Bells) and a programme of opera. Opera? The Washington Chorus have 2 or 3 engagements. The CASW is currently without a permanent Chorus Director. They had hired a new Chorus Director but that person could apparently not decide what gender they are so the person wanted to be referred to by the plural pronouns “they” and “them.” And that’s how the CASW referred to the new Chorus Director when announcing the appointment. Well, I knew that wasn’t going to work out and it didn’t. “They”/”Them” resigned after roughly 5 months in the job. The University of Maryland Concert Choir has a Messiah engagement with the NSO, and that’s it. Hopefully the CASW will perform the opera programme with their usual perfect intonation and not try to sound like an Opera Chorus. I’ve never heard an Opera Chorus sing with perfect intonation. With opera, it seems that they’ve never heard the term perfect intonation, aside from the orchestral musicians. Interestingly, I heard a piece from an opera on the local classical radio station last week. Surprisingly, the Chorus was singing with perfect intonation but then it was Robert Shaw’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, which they announced after the piece was over. So Shaw believed in perfect intonation regardless of what piece his Chorus was performing — even when it was opera — and I agree with him. No need to turn on wobbling, cackling and fluttering noises just because it’s fucking opera.

Fortunately, the symphonic choral seasons are better in the EU where the public still supports choral music, unlike the dumbed-down US.

By the way, I think the Symphony Chorus is still without a permanent Chorus Director. Their former Chorus Director from the EU was fired (or resigned, I forget which) because he refused to go along with the COVID protocol as established by the San Francisco Symphony which was in alignment with the guidelines set by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.