Music : L.B. Symphony Closes Season With Verdi

Almost since its premiere, unnecessary apologies have been tendered for the theatricality of Verdi’s Requiem. Its very vivid, urgent and human expression does no disservice to the texts involved.

Certainly JoAnn Falletta seemed to take it on those terms, in closing the classical portion of the Long Beach Symphony’s season, Saturday at the Terrace Theater. She began with a powerfully dramatic and well-paced account of the Introit and Kyrie, sharply detailed in the orchestra, with all forces integrated.

The Dies Irae sequence continued forcefully at first, but gradually lagged in the prayers assigned to the soloists, where Falletta seemed to settle into simply accompanying--and none too tidily at times. The orchestral lapses culminated in a messy Domine Jesu, and the emotional nadir was reached in an almost willfully perfunctory Sanctus.

From that point, however, Falletta engineered a steady comeback in spirit and responsiveness. The rushed and uninflected opening of the Libera Me showed scant connection to either operatic parlando or liturgical chant, but thereafter the movement achieved a rare and paradoxical state of impassioned resignation.

Throughout, Falletta kept her mettlesome orchestra very much in the foreground, reducing the contributions of the large Pacific Chorale to mime in some of the biggest passages. When given an accommodating context, the well-prepared chorus supplied even, fluent sound, saving its best work for the Libera Me.

The solo quartet offered ensemble work predicated, not entirely inappropriately, on contrast and linear independence. The effort to sing softly in the stratosphere set soprano Maureen Browne’s vibrato wobbling, but otherwise she soared cleanly, delivering secure and affecting work in the Libera Me.

In addition to her own solos, the mezzo initiates many of the ensembles, and Marvellee Cariaga provided pertinent models of Verdian line, particularly in the caressive Recordare and Lacrymosa. She also had the voice with the greatest heft, a real advantage in the often overachieving sonic environment.

Replacing Jonathan Mack, a reported victim of laryngitis, Paul Lyon introduced an effortful tenor and some odd accentuation. Peter Lightfoot deployed his middle-weight but well-focused baritone to pertinent, plangent effect.

Save for that sagging center, this was a generally telling performance of a major monument. It also ran nearly 1 1/2 hours, making the prefatory banalities of Respighi’s “Fontane di Roma”--and the ensuing 25-minute intermission--all the more needless.