by Andrew Adler

For Frank A. Heller III, every concert describes a small journey of inner space. Voces Novae, the chorus he trains and nurtures season after season, looks first to the spirit present within each of its singers, and by extension his audiences. It’s no exaggeration to call Heller’s perspective a pan-theistic, summoning faiths of all persuasion to share his listening ground. …

David A. Lipp, cantor of Louisville’s Congregation Adath Jeshurun, was the stylistically idiomatic soloist in several pieces by Cohen – himself a cantor in suburban New York. “Hinei Mah Tov/Sha’alu Sh’lom Y’rushalayim” mingled texts from Psalms 133 and 122 to luscious effect. Later on, three brief movements from Cohen’s Passover cantata “And You Shall Tell Your Child” articulated its intergenerational narrative through utterly simple means.

Clarinetist Dallas Tidwell and cellist Wendy Doyle were welcome participants as well; pianist Deanne Hardy was the afternoon’s skilled sympathetic accompanist. But it was the chorus, inevitably and rightly, that captured principal honors of the day. “Dayeinu!” declared yesterday’s finale – “Enough!” Well, after a bare hour’s worth of music, I wasn’t thinking “dayeinu” – I wanted more, more and more.