Music Reviews : L.A. Master Chorale at Chandler Pavilion

“Of Thee We Sing” screamed the ads for the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday night. Pandering to the flag-waving fit that the nation endured during the Persian Gulf War, the ads promised “music of courage and strength, songs of sacrifice and praise.” Whoopee.

But if you were expecting a George M. Cohan orgy or something like that, the Chorale’s new, enlightened music director Paul Salamunovich had something else in mind.

Sure, the evening was bracketed by a sometimes ridiculous Robert Russell Bennett arrangement of “Yankee Doodle” and “Chester” at the outset and a grandiose “America” at the close. But, in between, Salamunovich briskly explored some neglected byroads of American classical music--and not necessarily patriotic ones.

Granted, Randall Thompson’s naively pompous setting of Thomas Jefferson’s prose, “The Testament of Freedom,” hasn’t worn too well. But Howard Hanson’s “Song of Democracy” has a lot of imaginative color and good tunes to offer, springing from the same harmonic impulses that drive his lovable Symphony No. 2.

Halsey Stevens’ “The Ballad of William Sycamore” skitters and sighs agreeably in the neo-classical Copland-esque idiom of mid-century--and later, the real thing surfaced with “Stomp Your Foot” and a choral version of the lovely “The Promise of Living” from Copland’s “The Tender Land.”

The best news of the night was the splendid manner in which the Chorale performed for Salamunovich, producing a clear, bright, dynamically alert, forthright sound from which one can practically take dictation. It is a welcome throwback to the heyday of Roger Wagner, who can take some satisfaction in that.