In the centennial year of the composer and conductor’s birth, the orchestra performs a program of his symphonic works.
A most personal concert of music by one of America’s most iconic composers featured exemplary solo performances and earnest ensemble playing at the Segerstrom Concert Hall of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Thursday, Oct. 25, in the first of three performances.
Carl St. Clair, who was mentored by Leonard Bernstein, conducted the Pacific Symphony in an all-Bernstein program, celebrating the centennial of his birth (Aug. 25), which amazingly had no “West Side Story” in sight — well, almost none (see below).
Instead, the program had Bernstein at his most “classical,” his jazziest, his most abstract — and, of course, his most “pop.”
The most successful of these, oddly enough, received the least ovation (no curtain calls), although is still well-received. The rarely performed, classically grounded “Chichester Psalms” of 1965 was given in Bernstein’s preferred version for full orchestra (he also arranged it for reduced forces) and boy soprano, a part usually essayed by a female (adult) soprano, which the composer allowed as an alternative.
Boy soprano Angel Garcia, 12, sang with a supreme purity and smoothness that highlighted the second movement. This followed a first movement that got off to an uncertain start by all, before everyone found that necessary intensity which then never let up. The multi-emotional finale went from dramatic to cinematic to elegiac, with the Pacific Chorale here providing the best moment in an a cappella passage near the very end filled with hushed tones of sheer purity and etherealness.
Obviously enjoying this 18-minute work, St. Clair conducted with such expressiveness and lucidity, shaping, sculpting, molding, pulling out from his players, by turns, power, grace, precisely delineated jarring rhythms, and an overall fluidity underlying these abrupt changes of mood — most notably, the superb “angry” middle section of an otherwise serene and peaceful middle movement, based on music originally written for an early version of “West Side Story” (did say “almost,” remember?).
Augustin Hadelich distinguished the “Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’),” a 1954 33-minute concerto for violin solo and windless orchestra, with such clarity of tone and focused direction that, whenever the solo did not play, the rather-abstract piece meandered a bit. He took command from the start with an unaccompanied solo that he actually made sound more interesting than it really is, thanks to his centered approach. His shining moment occurred in the fourth (slow) movement (of five), playing the simple, heartfelt melodies with such abandoned yearning while being awash by the orchestra’s luxurious tonal harmonies in a flawless balance between the two.
Perhaps the Serenade may never take its place among the most popular violin concertos of all time (or even the 20th century), but Hadelich sure states a case for it. (The Serenade received its Pacific Symphony debut Thursday.)
“Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” a 1949 work for clarinet solo (written for Woody Herman, premiered by Benny Goodman) and jazz combo, got the concert off to an enjoyably and mostly rambunctious start. Yet even with a work such as this — basically showing his “jazzy” side — Bernstein still managed to go through other, contrasting styles, such as swing, sultry, jagged, lyrical and (controlled) raucous, all impressively present in the Pacific Symphony’s tight, eight-minute package. Joseph Morris played his short solos well.
Rounding out the concert were selections from “Arias and Barcarolles” (1988), “Wonderful Town” (1953) and “Candide” (1954-1956 and eternally revised 1973 and thereafter). These are all short samples of Bernstein’s writing for Broadway and Broadway-type songs. Two of the seven “Arias and Barcarolles” (which contains no actual barcarolles), his last work — whose world premiere St. Clair conducted in 1990, less than two months before the composer’s death — as well as “A Little Bit in Love” from “Wonderful Town” and “Glitter and Be Gay” from “Candide,” were all memorably rendered by soprano Celena Shafer, who did more than just sing them: she lived through them.
Head and shoulders above this overall delightful group of songs was “Glitter and Be Gay,” which found her doing a little choreography, either sobbing on the stool or slowly moving across the stage in hip-swiveling, arm-jutting motion while having the time of her life singing this classic, which she ended atop said stool. Her soprano voice, soothing and reassuring in the slower numbers, shone brilliantly here, as she traversed the huge range and melodic leaps with relish. She was joined by tenor Nicholas Preston and the Pacific Chorale in the final number, “Make Our Garden Grow,” also from “Candide,” which provided for a sentimental ending to the evening.
With: The Pacific Symphony, Carl St. Clair, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin; Joseph Morris, clarinet; Celena Shafer, soprano; Angel Garcia, boy soprano; Nicholas Preston, tenor; with the Pacific Chorale.
When: Thursday, Oct.25
Where: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Next: The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27
Tickets: $35-$186
Information: 714-755-5799, pacificsymphony.org .
