MUSIC REVIEW : Pacific the Big Star in Irvine Performance

Pacific Symphony music director Carl St. Clair mixed Aaron Copland and Carl Orff to good effect for a Summer Series musical extravaganza Saturday night at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. The orchestra played liked angels, the Pacific Chorale sang up a storm, and the results elicited four rousing ovations from the crowd of 7,596.

After leading off with a light and jaunty reading of the “Hoedown” section from Copland’s ballet “Rodeo,” St. Clair served up seven songs from Copland’s two “Old American Songs” sets, featuring the chorale and baritone Robin Buck.

The choice made sense for its exuberant American flavor (as well as for the topical political message of “The Dodger”), and the music was given a reading of unusual variety and excitement. Buck proved to be a handsome soloist, but his voice--perhaps victimized by the microphone setup--lacked the authoritative size and dramatic timing required to involve the audience. By contrast, the high-impact chorus sounded richly resonant.

St. Clair, meanwhile, showed his considerable ability at, and predilection for, finding the moments of often ecstatic tension between planes of texture and volume while keeping the music rolling smoothly and enjoyably along.

After intermission, Orff’s familiar “Carmina Burana” took center stage, oddly related to the Copland in its alternation of urgent declamation with rinky-dink, singable tunes.

Joined by the Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus, soprano Beverly Hoch and tenor Frank Kelley, St. Clair gave an electrically articulated performance that emphasized the abstract musical values only occasionally at the expense of what the program notes called the music’s “good, dirty fun.”

Kelley absolutely stole the show by blatantly quacking his one solo, the famous “roasted swan” song, with a wonderfully deadpan demeanor. Hoch, strolling onstage at the beginning of Part III while the orchestra and children’s chorus already were singing, achieved a pouting, breathless sexiness that was entirely appropriate, if a bit on the innocent and prudent side.

The symphony itself, however, may have been the evening’s biggest star, playing with showy virtuosity and tremendous dynamic range.