Dance and Music : Master Chorale Takes a Latin American Route

Pillars of the Anglo-German cultural Establishment, large choruses are typically even more conservative than symphony orchestras. But Paul Salamunovich is leading the Los Angeles Master Chorale down interesting paths this season, including a delightfully subversive program of Latin American music Saturday.

Pieces such as Ginastera’s heroic “Lamentaciones de Jeremias Propheta” and Villa-Lobos’ fluid, Portuguese Ave Maria, for example, re-imagine traditional forms and styles. The prospect may have been much too brave a new world for some, judging from the empty seats in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The program boasted the world premiere of Lalo Schifrin’s “Cantares Argentinos,” a five-movement cycle of folk-inspired materials deftly scored. It works purposefully toward a real climax in “Ofertorio Galante”--a complex tango of varied textures--followed by a joyful denouement.

Salamunovich urged supple, balanced performances from his chorus, 60 voices on this occasion. They provided warm, full sound at all dynamic levels and punchy rhythmic detail.

The accompanying ensemble of woodwinds, piano, harp, bass and percussion offered some heterodox ideas about pitch, while delivering much of the colorful punctuation that the composer seemed to intend. Carmen Zapata read from the bilingual program notes in a superfluous narration.

Many of the same inflections could be heard in Ariel Ramirez’s familiar “Misa Criolla,” an effective program partner. But here the performance--a tad too fast and much too blunt for the gentle, cross-rhythmic fall of the Sanctus, for example--rather overwhelmed the music.

Tenor Mallory Walker and baritone James Drollinger stepped out of the Chorale for clear, affecting solos in the Mass, while tenor Agostino Castagnola floated the long lines of Alcides Briceno’s “Rio que Pasas Llorando” with lyric ardor, seconded somewhat thickly by the men of the Chorale.

The women had their own flattering vehicle in “El Hacedor y la Nina” by Elifio Rosaenz. The glutinous English settings of Carlos Chavez’s Three Nocturnes, Luis Sandi’s lush “Canto de Amor y de Muerte,” and a stylistic account of colonial-era psalm settings completed the generous program.