A 19th-century version of “surround sound” came to downtown's Copley Symphony Hall over the weekend. And the result was nothing short of a sonic extravaganza.
Conducted by San Diego Symphony music director Jahja Ling, with Vinson Cole as the lustrous tenor soloist, Berlioz's mighty Requiem brought together approximately 250 other musicians – 140 from the San Diego Master Chorale and the rest from the expanded symphony. While the percussion section was bolstered to include four timpanists, four groups of brass players were positioned in the back and sides of the balcony.
Nowhere was the multidirectional effect more spectacular than in “Tuba mirum,” which evokes the last judgment. As voices rang forth from the stage, accompanied by thundering drumrolls, the brass instruments in the balcony added a whole other dimension, just as Berlioz intended.
The combined sounds seemed to come at you from all angles, as if ricocheting off the walls and suffusing the hall in a drama-drenched fortissimo. So powerful was the combination that it amounted to a glorious case of sensory overload at Friday's Jacobs' Masterworks concert, which was repeated Saturday and yesterday.
Ling conducted the work with energized devotion whether in the propulsive “Tuba mirum” or in the gentle, a cappella choral passages of “Quaerens me.” Given the size of the musical forces, it wasn't surprising that cohesiveness was occasionally an issue, particularly between the balcony brass and the performers onstage.
Yet the performance conveyed the adventurous nature of the composer Ling calls a “great revolutionary . . . so very much ahead of his time.” The “Lacrymosa” still sounded daring, with jabbing violins, grunting cellos and such a jarring disparity between instruments and voices that Berlioz seemed to be experimenting with polyrhythms.
Though Berlioz wrote operas, there's little that's overtly operatic – or tuneful – in the Requiem. At times, as in the primal phrases of the opening, the French composer showed how he wanted to create his own path, far from the melodic legacy of Mozart's Requiem.
Even if not all the music was particularly appealing, the San Diego Symphony is to be commended for programming the work that premiered in 1837 in Paris. This was only the symphony's third presentation of the Requiem, following performances led by Earl Bernard Murray during the 1964-65 season and by Robert Shaw in 1955.
Over the weekend, the orchestra encouraged accessibility by displaying translations of the Latin text on a screen. For continuity's sake, the 90-minute-long work was presented without intermission. Though not everyone remained until the end – there were some defections about halfway through – the “Sanctus” was an ample reward for those who stayed.
The movement contained Cole's only solo and the veteran tenor didn't waste a note. Standing to one side of the balcony's seating area, with a hand on the railing, he sang with smoothness, clarity and a silvery purity that was almost luminous.
Though he's better known for Verdi's Requiem, which he performed with the symphony in 2004, Cole was beautifully equipped for the Berlioz. His voice soared above the hushed orchestral accompaniment, exuding conviction. And with the help of vibrant contributions from the orchestra and chorus, this Mass for the Dead became a celebration of life.
Valerie Scher: (619) 293-1038; valerie.scher@uniontrib.com
