CHORALE TO PERFORM MENDELSSOHN

Once a favorite work with Victorian choral societies, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 in B-flat (“Hymn of Praise”) has been neglected in this century largely because it falls between two camps, says Orange Coast Chorale conductor Richard Raub.

“Choral organizations are reluctant to do the work because it has pure orchestral movements, and orchestra societies are reluctant because it involves large choral forces--and they’d rather put their efforts into works like Brahms’ ‘German Requiem,’ ” Raub said.

But because “the work deserves to be heard,” Raub will conduct the 90-member Orange Coast Chorale and a 50-piece orchestra in the Mendelssohn symphony at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast College.

(He will open the program with the chorus “Va, pensiero” from Verdi’s opera “Nabucco.”)

Modeled on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in structure, Mendelssohn’s work is divided into an instrumental portion of three movements and a choral finale for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The choral text is derived from the Bible.

“Mendelssohn gathered verses from the Psalms and assembled them in much the same way Brahms did for his ‘German Requiem,’ ” Raub said. “The last section consists of 10 short movements.

“The work has many moods, including reflective moments, but the predominant emotion is joy, in keeping with the subtitle, ‘Lobegesang’ or ‘Hymn of Praise.’ ”

Written in 1840 when the composer was 31, the work dates from one of the happiest periods in Mendelssohn’s relatively brief life (he was 38 when he died).

He had been appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra in 1835, and his high musical standards and innovative approach to programming--he virtually rediscovered Bach and other Baroque composers, while promoting contemporaries such as Robert Schumann--”had taken the town by storm,” Raub said. “He was very well thought of.”

So when town officials decided to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press, Mendelssohn was the natural candidate to write the festival music. His Second Symphony was premiered during the celebrations.

“The piece seemed to have mesmerized everyone at its premiere, including Schumann, who spoke highly of it,” Raub said.

So popular did the work prove that Mendelssohn was encouraged to take it several times to England, where it subsequently became a staple in the repertory of English choral societies.

“Hence the precedent for singing it in English,” Raub said. “I would have preferred to do it in (the original) German, but I couldn’t find any score in this country that had the German text.”

As time went on, however, only the choral movement was performed, even though “the two parts were definitely meant to be performed as a unit,” Raub said.

Eventually, the work simply disappeared from the repertory. Raub said he doesn’t recall even hearing it mentioned during his musical education.

“I only became acquainted with the symphony several years ago when I heard it on the radio,” he explained. “It appealed to me very much, and I wanted to bring it to people who probably have never heard it.

“I’m sure that a chorus or two from the work has been given in (local) churches, but as far as I can tell this is the first complete performance of the work in Orange County.”

Although Mendelssohn looked to Beethoven for the symphonic-choral structure of the piece, he appears to have been heavily influenced stylistically by the music of Bach, according to Raub.

“Mendelssohn had been critically influential in the 19th-Century rediscovery of Bach by this time and felt very honored to be in the same city--Leipzig--that Bach had lived in. In fact, the Second Symphony was premiered at the St. Thomas church, which was Bach’s main church while he was alive.

“Mendelssohn was a great master of counterpoint. This came in part from his great love of Bach and also because he had very good teachers when younger. The piece is loaded with wonderful examples of (fugal) writing.

“One of the sections of the last movement, for instance, is a setting of the chorale, ‘Nun danket alle Gott’ (which Bach used in his Cantata No. 192). Mendelssohn has the chorus sing one verse of that a cappella, then writes very elaborate orchestral lines under it as it continues. And the work ends with a great choral fugue.”

The work presents the chorus with few vocal hurdles, Raub said.

“The vocal parts are not terribly difficult,” he said. “They’re predictable in their harmonic language, as is so much of Mendelssohn’s music. There are a few tricky passages, stylistically and rhythmically, which required some drilling.

“But it’s the strings that face the great difficulties. There are lots of passages that require quick playing and dexterity. We’ll have three rehearsals to work out all the problems.”