Mixed Bag Proves a Difficult Match

COSTA MESA —  The Pacific Chorale celebrated the opening of its 30th season Sunday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with a roster of great choral excerpts. Revenues from the concert, reportedly $18,000 in single-seat sales alone, attested to the popularity of the program. Artistic results were more modest.

The lineup of excerpts created its own problems. For the first half of the concert, artistic director John Alexander chose six selections according to sentiment, topic or text, which he led without pausing for applause, as if they were movements of distinct works.

Of course they were movements of distinct works--portions of Requiems by Mozart, Durufle and Verdi, of Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah,” of Haydn’s “The Creation” and of “Ein Deutsches Requiem,” by Brahms--each segment possessing an impact partly attributable to its original singularly suited position. Now, however, Mozart’s Introit and Kyrie introduced “Lift Thine Eyes” and “He Watching Over Israel” by Mendelssohn. Haydn’s “The Heavens Are Telling” preceded “Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen,” the supreme centerpiece of Brahms’ personal statement, and the trumpeted heralding of Verdi’s setting of the Sanctus jarred sensibilities after the surging swirls of Durufle’s.

The choir traversed the changing styles and character with craftsmanlike aplomb, shifting from fluid legatos to rhythmically distinguished polyphony, mustering balanced jubilation and crashing climaxes without losing tone quality.

It was assisted in these efforts by the generally competent, sometimes more than competent, partnership of members from the Pacific Symphony; by a moving solo, for the Introit, by soprano Susan Alexander, and by a pleasant but orchestrally overwhelmed trio for Haydn’s chorus by Susan Alexander, baritone Malcolm MacKenzie and tenor Robert MacNeil.

After intermission came the finale from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, without the monumental addition of the singers after instrumental movements, and without the husbanded burst of energy that can come from a chorus that has saved its all for this moment. Any transcendent moments came from the quartet of soloists, for which mezzo-soprano Adelaide Sinclair joined the combined forces.

New to the chorale was Villa-Lobos’ “Choros No. 10,” offered complete and self-contained, and effective in its dark Stravinskian orchestration, its raw Brazilian rhythms and colorful percussion and its use of chorus to develop orchestral materials.