Previn Leads ‘War Requiem’ at Music Center

It has taken an unseemly while--29 years--for Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” to arrive on the desks of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But the work could hardly have come at a more needful moment, as Andre Previn led its first Philharmonic performance Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

An unlikely but highly effective and influential fusion of operatic liturgy and austere song cycle, the “War Requiem” makes a searing, poignant indictment of the shrill cries we hear now about the moral imperative to spill blood in the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the saddest thing about this work of immense rarefied sorrow is that it seems perennially topical.

Previn led a remarkably controlled account, exaggerating nothing. Indeed, at times his approach sounded too detached emotionally and disconnected musically.

But Previn also enforced a clarity that allowed Britten the power of telling understatement and affecting simplicity. He gave his soloists expressive freedom, stabilized the complementary planes of musical action and maintained momentum.

Tenor John Aler and baritone Thomas Allen proved noble, evocative narrators of Wilfred Owen’s poetry. Aler produced a wide vibrato and more hortatory fervor, but both sang with arresting point and vocal ease.

Their sound, however, was too slender at times for the vigorous instrumental interjections. Previn did little to inhibit his capable band of chamber orchestra soloists, and they overwhelmed the singers at several points.

Troubled balances afflicted the larger forces as well, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale an unduly murmurous background to orchestral activity in the opening chorus. In such hushed moments as the Kyrie and Pie Jesu, the chorale supplied a suave, well-blended sound, and rose grandly to the stately joy of the Hosanna.

Soprano Andrea Gruber had no problem asserting her solos against all comers, introducing a big, gleaming voice that soared easily over chorus and orchestra in all but the biggest climaxes. Something more fragile might have served the Lacrimosa better, but she sang with radiant assurance and fluid phrasing.

From offstage the Paulist Boy Choristers provided otherworldly contrasts of sound and sentiment. They sang cleanly and clearly, with buoyant, pertinent thrust.