MUSIC REVIEW : Chanticleer in Debut at Performing Arts Center

Behind banks of poinsettias--several dozen of the red, potted plants stretching across the stage of Segerstrom Hall--Chanticleer made its first appearance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in a program called “Christmas With Chanticleer.”

Like most performances by the 12-member, a cappella male choir from San Francisco, however, this program was neither predictable nor hackneyed. Christmas with Chanticleer may include familiar, as well as more esoteric, musical items, but it deals never in cliches and seldom in phony holiday cheer.

Instead, as performed Wednesday night before an enthusiastic and usually attentive audience--most of the coughers restrained themselves until after intermission--this was a characteristically fascinating, wide-ranging program, with the Christmas emphases saved until the end.

Then, the seasonal music dominated. Eight varied carols, both composed and traditional, showing the often-neglected versatility of the genre, preceded a brief but potent set of Christmas spirituals, ending appropriately with “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.”

This was a lusty rendering of a powerful tune, the most lusty singing in an evening of handsome sounds, incidentally. But it did not make up for a lack of heartiness in much of the remainder of the performance.

Thin tone-production now apparently characterizes the otherwise accomplished vocal ensemble, which, more than ever, seems top-heavy with uninteresting treble voices. Its admired versatility is thus threatened; you would not want to hear the present membership singing sea chanteys --the group simply lacks that core of hearty sound such music demands.

At this stage in its 15-year development, Chanticleer also lacks strong solo voices that could make all its programs more effective and entertaining. Technically, too, it may be slipping--the evidence on Wednesday certainly indicated slippage--in terms of solid and reliable intonation. These dozen members still specialize in pretty, soft-singing, but, without genuine strength at the loud end of the dynamic spectrum, the future could be bleak.

Nevertheless, there were pleasures in this well-paced program: a tasteful, amusing set of excerpts from Adriano Banchieri’s madrigal-comedy, “La Pazzia Senile”; two beauteous exhumations from the choral catalogue of Camille Saint-Saens; pristine and touching readings of 16th-Century pieces by Michael and Hieronymous Praetorius; a serene performance of Franz Biebl’s wondrous “Ave Maria.”

Like the Kronos Quartet, this ensemble, also a proud representative of San Francisco in the larger musical world, may have an unlimited artistic future--if it upholds its own past standards.