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MAY CONCERT REVIEW IN THE WASHINGTON POST (May 21, 2007)—The Thomas Circle Singers have cultivated the pianissimo to an art form all its own. With a program at the National City Christian Church on Saturday that devoted its first half to the likes of Duruflé, Messiaen and Fauré, and the second to John Rutter's 1985 Requiem, they had themselves a feast of quiet and contemplative scores on which to lavish their expertise. Of course, the acoustics of the sanctuary's vast space helped a bit, softening already gentle edges, but it also laid a cloud of indistinction over diction that only occasionally was able to emerge as clear and precise. Conductor James Kreger has his 32-person ensemble singing weightlessly and with agility. Soft singing is much more difficult to sustain than loud, but pitch never wavered and long phrases emerged sounding fresh and easy. The misty French sonorities established in the four opening motets by Duruflé served everything else on the program as well; even the Rutter, with its occasional hints of modal English folk melody, needed this French flavor to project its message of peace. But an hour and a half of this warm, comfortable fuzziness could have used a occasional wake-up jolt, maybe in the form of some of Poulenc's rhythmic energy—something to get the blood flowing again. This was a problem with programming, not with performance. A small, supportive instrumental group accompanied the Rutter. Organist Julie Vidric Evans gave a nice account of Messiaen's "Dieu Parmi Nous," and there was some fine work by sopranos Elizabeth Dutton and Kristine Johnson. —Joan Reinthaler
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