MUSIC REVIEW : Majestic Touch for ‘Great’ Mass

Mozart’s “Great” C Minor Mass, K. 417a has always been something of an enigma to Mozart scholars. That the prolific composer would undertake such a large-scale setting of the Mass and then leave it unfinished is difficult to explain.

Thursday night at Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego Symphony guest conductor Michael Palmer propounded an unequivocal vision of the work as a brilliant monument to the Baroque styles of Bach and Handel. Palmer’s eloquent case made a moot point of all historical speculation and justifications.

Palmer, who is music director of the New Haven Symphony, elicited a majestic and well-disciplined response from both the San Diego Master Chorale and the orchestra. From the solemn chords of the opening “Kyrie” to the festive counterpoint of the final “Osanna,” the work bristled with vitality and conviction. If the conductor’s dynamic choices were limited--he favored sustained loud dynamic levels from the chorus--his judicious choice of tempos and unceasing demands for clear textures kept the interpretation within the pale of 18th-Century conventions.

With her characteristic gleaming timbre, soprano Virginia Sublett made the technically arduous soprano solos sound effortless and natural. She gracefully floated the long lines of the sublime “Et incarnatus est,” artfully subordinating Mozart’s blatantly operatic ornamentation to the pristine intentions of the liturgical text.

Her execution of the fioritura was as precise and subtle as that of principal flute Damian Bursill-Hall, who played the movement’s elegant obbligato. Throughout the Mass, the symphony provided cohesive and supportive accompaniment.

Mezzo-soprano Karen Brunssen’s earnest, energetic approach to her solo and ensemble assignments could not mask the weakness of her upper range or her approximation of pitches in rapid passage work. In smaller roles, tenor Karl Dent and bass Peter Van Derick articulated their solos cleanly but plainly.

Palmer and the orchestra opened the concert with a spirited but suave reading of Mozart’s Overture to “La Clemenza di Tito,” K. 621. To contrast with the Mozart, Palmer brought with him Ezra Laderman’s tone poem “The Citadel,” a recent commission by the New Haven Symphony and two other American orchestras. According to the conductor, this was only the third performance of the piece, a single-movement work for large orchestra.

Although it is always refreshing to hear the orchestra essay new music, Laderman’s unabashedly tonal and sweetly tuneful idiom made few demands and a modest impression. The style of “The Citadel” could serve as a primer for accessible and painless music. But the work’s episodic structure, nonchalant pace, and mere surface allure did not make this listener eager for another hearing.

This concert will be repeated at 2 p.m. Sunday in Copley Symphony Hall.