MUSIC REVIEW : Soderstrom Offers Belated Premiere

It was an evening of discovery Thursday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. With Elisabeth Soderstrom as the enlightened soloist, Andre Previn led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the belated local premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “Our Hunting Fathers.”

The symphonic cycle, written in 1936 when the composer was only 23, is an extraordinary example of bold sociopolitical commentary in music. The texts--arranged, collected and/or written by W. H. Auden--pretend to explore man’s relationship with animals. The real subject, however, is the encroaching threat of fascism and the horror of war. The historical metaphors are devastatingly obvious.

In this, his first composition for full orchestra, Britten was still influenced by the stark astringency of Stravinsky at one extreme and by the indulgent opulence of Mahler at the other. (In an inspired typographical error, the program annotation referred to the Austrian model as “Hamler.”) Despite flashes of massive orchestral brilliance, despite vocal complexity that embellishes Sprechgesang with bel-canto bravado, the tone of the piece is relentlessly macabre.

At the beginning of his career, Britten was unafraid of bitter parody and, within certain limitations, theatrical flamboyance. Subtlety and restraint would come later.

“Our Hunting Fathers” isn’t pretty. It is wild, bizarre, blatant, and in its bleak excesses, it is wonderful.

It invokes the feverish grotesqueries of a plague at the outset. As poignancy gives way to despair, it laments death on personal as well as universal levels. The epilogue brings an end, if not a resolution, as an eerie xylophone takes up the funereal cries of the soprano.

Previn and the orchestra traced the devious contours with virtuosic abandon. They also provided a sensitive instrumental impetus for the relatively fragile soloist.

Soderstrom, nearing her 61st birthday, is still one of the great singing actresses of our day. The top of her Mozart-Strauss soprano still gleams. The tone is still fresh, and the intelligence that motivates and shades her phrasing remains a source of wonder. She negotiated the linear convolutions, the searing attacks, the pathetic murmurs and the expressive cadenzas with unerring poise.

One can imagine the impact of a bigger, more incisive sound in this music. But, as always, the Swedish soprano was able to sustain pathos and to magnetize sympathy by dint of resourceful inflection. Time can do little to tarnish this sort of artistry, given the appropriate stimulus.

The stimulus in the first part of the cleverly balanced evening proved somewhat less appropriate. Soderstrom found the heroic fioriture and wide-ranging outbursts of Haydn’s “Scena di Berenice” something of a strain, passages of sublime dignity and moments of undoubted finesse notwithstanding.

Previn opened the Haydn half of the concert with a thoughtful if somewhat ponderous account of the “London” Symphony, No. 104. He closed the Britten half with the four “Sea Interludes” from “Peter Grimes,” demonstrating more concern for symphonic clarity than for operatic mood-painting.

The audience for this challenging, mildly unorthodox program nearly made up in enthusiasm for what it lacked in numbers.