MUSIC REVIEW : John Alexander Conducts Chorale Christmas Show

No fewer than 21 separate works (not counting the encores) occupied the Pacific Chorale’s annual Christmas concert Monday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Yet the program, conducted by John Alexander, turned out to be remarkably varied, smooth-flowing and satisfying.

It was largely a program of 20th-Century works and included for many listeners some interesting discoveries. Those who haven’t heard previous holiday programs by the chorale might not be familiar with Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” which effectively juxtaposes late-Romantic harmonies with monophonic chant. The chorale’s men surrounded the audience to give a fluid, expressive account of the work.

Later the women delivered Daniel Pinkham’s “Company at the Creche,” a setting of poems by Norma Farber. Sung with great sensitivity and clarity, this reading included fine performances by the Pacific Handbell Ensemble and harpist Mindy Ball.

Another discovery was Ariel Ramirez’s “Navidad Nuestra,” sung by a subgroup of the chorale, the 40-voice Pacific Singers. The short, six-movement work, which uses Argentine folk rhythms and simple harmonic progressions and is based on a moving text by Felix Luna, communicates directly (even when the singers failed to enunciate thoroughly) and unpretentiously. The soloists, most prominently tenor William Smith, sang sensitively but with insufficient projection.

Other works used the full, 145-voice choir. Alexander elicited a well-blended, homogenous sound, maintained rhythmic precision and secured exact releases nearly all the time. The sopranos and altos did fall victim to minor intonation difficulties in several works, including the Ramirez and the “Gloria in Excelsis” from Poulenc’s Mass in G, but such problems were short-lived. One had to admire the rich, vibrant sound the chorus produced in an excerpt from Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G, the fine sense of linear motion in Natalie Sleeth’s “Baby, What You Goin’ to Be?” and the exuberance in John Ferguson’s arrangement of “Ding, Dong, Merrily on High.”

The Pacific Handbell Ensemble gave handsome, polished readings of the finale from Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3” and Victor Herbert’s “March of the Toys” (arranged by the ensemble’s director, Ardis Freeman).

All participated--including the audience--in performances of traditional carols. It’s always a trick to get the audience to really sing. Alexander pulled this off by conducting the listeners and encircling them with some of his chorale singers.

One sure-fire way to get a standing ovation is to end with the “Hallelujah” chorus; the familiar crowd pleaser was delivered with style and fervor.