From the San Diego Arts Community...

As usual, San Diegans have a plethora of musical events from which to choose during the holiday season.

This season’s program planners, however, have displayed an atypical paucity of imagination. Handel’s redoubtable oratorio “Messiah” and Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” have cornered more than their share of the musical market. Innovation is out; bankable standards are in.

The San Diego Symphony’s collaboration with the San Diego Master Chorale promises to be the classiest “Messiah” of the season. Under the baton of guest conductor Michael Palmer, an essentially complete version of “Messiah” will be given at 8 p.m. Dec. 16 and at 2 p.m. Dec. 18 in Symphony Hall. The four operatic soloists will be soprano Young Mi Kim, mezzo Martha Jane Weaver, tenor Carroll Freeman and bass-baritone Peter Atherton.

At the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, the recently formed West Coast Lyric Opera Company will stage six performances (Dec. 8-18) of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the opera Menotti wrote for television in 1951. Company director Anne Young will supervise the music; Will Roberson will execute the opera’s stage direction.

In recent years, the tradition of performing all six of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos has become an orchestral staple for the holiday season. This year, however, no ensemble will present the whole cycle, but the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will play three of the six concertos at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. The San Diego Symphony will offer two Brandenburg Concertos, No. 2 and No. 5, along with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, on Dec. 17 at Symphony Hall. Guest conductor Jahja Ling will conduct this program and its identical reprise Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Carlsbad at the Cultural Arts Center.

“Messiah” sing-alongs are less plentiful this year, but the San Diego Lutheran Chorale will sponsor one of these popular audience-participation performances on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, La Mesa. Under the direction of chorale leader Frank Williams, the program will include orchestra and organ accompaniment. Among the oratorio’s four soloists, counter tenor Michael Cox will perform the alto solos, an unusual but not unhistorical vocal choice.

David Chase, director of the La Jolla Civic-University Chorus, has integrated audience participation into his ensemble’s “Christmas Collage Concert,” which will be given at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium Dec. 10-11. Members of the audience will be able to join in both carol singing and in the “Hallelujah” Chorus from “Messiah.” On the same program the Civic-University Orchestra will perform “Winter” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” under conductor Thomas Nee.

The following concerts and church services offer some alternatives to the “Messiah” glut:

John Rutter’s amusing tale of how the carol “In dulci jubilo” came about, “Brother Heinrich’s Christmas,” will be sung by a select children’s choir at St. Brigid Catholic Church, Pacific Beach. The Dec. 4 program, which will be narrated by San Diego Opera education director William Roesch, starts at 4 p.m.

The first three cantatas of Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” will be given at the First Unitarian Church of San Diego, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m., under the direction of Daniel Ratelle.

Respighi’s “Laud to the Nativity” will be paired with Saint-Saens’ “Christmas Oratorio” at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. Robert Cooper will conduct both the church’s Chancel choir and the Masterwork Chorale for these seasonal cantatas.

For those who appreciate English choral traditions, the musical service of Lessons and Carols will be celebrated at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego, at 5 p.m. Dec. 18. The men and boys of the Cathedral Choristers will sing the service under choirmaster Edgar Billups.

More men’s voices will be offered at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego on Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. The San Diego Men’s Chorus will present both popular holiday medleys and sacred Christmas music under director Gary Holt.

Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve will be celebrated in many churches, and St. Brigid Catholic Church will offer Haydn’s “Mass in Honor of St. Nicolas” at the 10 p.m. service Dec. 24. Jerry Witt is the organist and choirmaster.