‘Requiem’ a Musical Heavyweight at CSUN

John Alexander, head of Cal State Northridge’s choral department, doesn’t always think big. Sometimes he thinks enormous, and he has met his match in programming Hector Berlioz’s “Requiem.”

“I’ve built my career on major choral-orchestral works,” Alexander said, “and Berlioz’s ‘Requiem’ is about as big as you can get. There’s no composer who asks for more.”

Requiring hundreds of singers, a large orchestra and brass choirs at each corner of the orchestra, the 1837 “Requiem” will be performed May 6 by the Valley Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale and CSUN Symphony at 8 p.m. in the CSUN gym.

The performance will conclude CSUN’s May Festival, a weeklong series of concerts that will also feature orchestra concerts, chamber music, choral works and new compositions.

Large-scale works pose many performance problems: Every extra player increases the danger that the ensemble will drag the tempos or fall apart, and every extra singer increases the chance that the words will be incomprehensible, especially if the text is in a foreign language (in this case Latin). Rehearsals pose another problem simply because it’s difficult to bring so many people together more than a few times.

But Alexander, 45, has his reasons for thinking big.

“Major choral-orchestral works are usually a composer’s best efforts,” he said. “ ‘A German Requiem’ is the best Brahms, the last Masses of Haydn are the same way. The Mozart ‘Requiem’ is one of his most exquisite works.” Not that Alexander has lost his humor after performing so many funereal works: “We call it the chorale of death,” he said.

Berlioz (1803-1869) in many ways personifies the Romantic spirit: The son of a doctor, he began medical studies but quit to study music despite his father’s stern opposition. In addition to being a prolific composer, he wrote extensively on music as a critic and as a satirist. His “Evenings With the Orchestra” ruthlessly dissects the abuses of musical performances of his day.

“The extraordinary thing about Berlioz is that he wasn’t a pianist,” Alexander said. “He had no facility at the piano, so he couldn’t write something at the keyboard and transcribe it for orchestra. Instead, his compositions came out of his head, which is what makes them so unique.”

Fortunately, Berlioz lived at a time when the modern orchestra was slowly emerging, and he experimented with many of the instruments that were being invented, such as the valve cornet, along with finding new uses for existing ones.

In addition to helping refine the modern orchestra, Berlioz helped redefine the image of the conductor. It was Berlioz, for example, who helped pioneer the use of a baton and he conducted from a full score, in contrast to the previous practice in which a conductor used a violin bow and conducted from the first violin part.

Although the account in his autobiography isn’t universally accepted, Berlioz wrote that during the premiere of the “Requiem,” the conductor, determined to sabotage the performance, paused to take a pinch of snuff before beginning one of the work’s grandest moments, the “Tuba Mirum.” “Berlioz, who was sitting right behind the conductor, jumped up and gave the cues,” Alexendar said. “It says something about the conducting of that period.”

Alexander said he chose the Berlioz “Requiem” in honor of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. “The revolution inspired the spirit that music should be for the people,” he said, “and Berlioz is a direct result of that.”

He lists some of the instruments used in the “Requiem”: eight bassoons (the standard is two or three), 12 French horns (the standard is four), 16 timpani (the standard is usually three or four), along with 80 women, 60 tenors and 70 basses. Berlioz’s note on the score says these forces may be doubled or quadrupled.

“But the wonderful thing about Berlioz is that it’s not just bombast,” Alexander said. “There are sections like chamber music.” Another section is a cappella, which is voices without instrumental accompaniment. “How many composers writing a major work say ‘I’m going to write a capella?’ ” Alexander asks.

Planning the performance of so vast a work requires organization. Alexander rehearses separately with the orchestra and each chorus before combining the forces a few days before the performance. “It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together,” Alexander said. “With smaller works, the performers get to see the results immediately, but with big works, they don’t get to see the results until the last moment.”

Of course, there can be last-minute complications as a result, which Alexander said can make such a performance something of a gamble. There shouldn’t be too many risks this time, since the same group, with the Pacific Symphony, performed the “Requiem” last month at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

If there’s a gamble this time, it’s on finding an audience, Alexander said.

“Things like this have not been done in the Valley,” he said. “We’re looking for an audience of 2,000, which is a smaller audience than we had in Orange County. We must train the audience that we can do something like this.”

The May Festival will begin at 8 p.m. May 1 with a performance by the CSUN Symphony conducted by David Aks. The program will include Joseph Schwantner’s “New Morning for the World” with narrator Danny Glover, and Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.” The performance will be in the CSUN Student Union.

On May 2 at 8 p.m., The CSUN Trio, violinist Joseph Genualdi, cellist Michael Flaksman and pianist Francoise Regnant, with violist Myron Sandler and violinist Ken Mizumoto will perform chamber music by Beethoven, Faure and Dvorak in the CSUN Campus Theatre.

Alexander will conduct the Northridge Singers and Chamber Singers in the premiere of Richard Davis’ “Three American Indian Songs,” along with works by Schumann, Britten and P.D.Q. Bach at 8 p.m. May 3 in the Student Union.

Music by the CSUN faculty members Frank Campo, Beverly Grigsby, Daniel Kessner and Aurelio de la Vega will be performed at 8 p.m. May 4 in the CSUN Recital Hall.

On May 5 at 8 p.m., David Whitwell will conduct the CSUN Wind Ensemble in the premiere of Ida Gotkovsky’s “Symphonic Brilliante” in the Student Union.

Tickets for the series are $54, $45 for faculty, staff and senior citizens, $36 for students. Tickets for any four concerts are $44, $36 and $28 and individual tickets are $12, $10 and $8 except for the “Requiem,” which has a price range of $5.50 to $12.50.