In the centennial year of the composer and conductor\u2019s birth, the orchestra performs a program of his symphonic works.<\/b>
\nA most personal concert of music by one of America\u2019s 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 \u201cWest Side Story\u201d in sight \u2014 well, almost none (see below).
Instead, the program had Bernstein at his most \u201cclassical,\u201d his jazziest, his most abstract \u2014 and, of course, his most \u201cpop.\u201d
The most successful of these, oddly enough, received the least ovation (no curtain calls), although is still well-received. The rarely performed, classically grounded \u201cChichester Psalms\u201d of 1965 was given in Bernstein\u2019s 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 \u2014 most notably, the superb \u201cangry\u201d middle section of an otherwise serene and peaceful middle movement, based on music originally written for an early version of \u201cWest Side Story\u201d (did say \u201calmost,\u201d remember?).
Augustin Hadelich distinguished the \u201cSerenade (after Plato\u2019s \u2018Symposium\u2019),\u201d 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\u2019s 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.)
\u201cPrelude, Fugue and Riffs,\u201d 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 \u2014 basically showing his \u201cjazzy\u201d side \u2014 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\u2019s tight, eight-minute package. Joseph Morris played his short solos well.
Rounding out the concert were selections from \u201cArias and Barcarolles\u201d (1988), \u201cWonderful Town\u201d (1953) and \u201cCandide\u201d (1954-1956 and eternally revised 1973 and thereafter). These are all short samples of Bernstein\u2019s writing for Broadway and Broadway-type songs. Two of the seven \u201cArias and Barcarolles\u201d (which contains no actual barcarolles), his last work \u2014 whose world premiere St. Clair conducted in 1990, less than two months before the composer\u2019s death \u2014 as well as \u201cA Little Bit in Love\u201d from \u201cWonderful Town\u201d and \u201cGlitter and Be Gay\u201d from \u201cCandide,\u201d 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 \u201cGlitter and Be Gay,\u201d 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, \u201cMake Our Garden Grow,\u201d also from \u201cCandide,\u201d 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: Ren\u00e9e 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 .<\/p>\n

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