Pacific Chorale Renews Its Promise : Music: The season opener reflects a message of hope and the director’s commitment to present new composers and masterworks.

Death, winter and drought--is that any way to start a season?

Yet that’s what’s on the agenda Sunday when the Pacific Chorale opens its 1994-95 season in Costa Mesa. Howard Hanson’s “Streams in the Desert” (1969) was commissioned for the Texas-based International Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Studies. Morten Lauridsen’s “Mid-Winter Songs” (1980) is based on poems by Robert Graves; the first words are Dying sun. And Johannes Brahms hoped his German Requiem would reconcile the living with death and suffering.

“This is a refreshing concert,” said conductor John Alexander. “The unifying element of these pieces is that they move from darkness to light; they say you can come out of death, winter and drought. This program promotes the concept that whatever the difficulties, the outcome can be positive.”

The concert is dubbed “Songs of Heaven and Earth.” The group’s 27th season continues with a Christmas concert with handbells and children’s chorus Dec. 18 and “Dances of Love and Life” with Ballet Pacifica on Feb. 26. It concludes May 13 with “Earthly Voices,” featuring Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” with the Oakland Ballet and Stephen Paulus’ “Voices.”

Alexander said that it’s no coincidence that all the major Southland chorales have begun their seasons with Requiems.

“We’re all so affected by all the deaths around (from AIDS),” he said. “But the Brahms is so different from the Mozart or Faure (Requiems). Those are liturgical works based on dogma. The Brahms work is based on text handpicked by the composer to deal with comfort, acceptance and joy. Every movement ends in a positive statement.

“The Brahms is my favorite piece” in all of choral music, he said. “It affects your spirituality; it affects your soul. Once you get into it, you cannot be not moved by it. Anyone who says the Requiem is a boring piece--and I actually read that this week--has not experienced it. I think it’s a misnomer to call it a Requiem. It’s not about death, it’s about life.”

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The Pacific Chorale began life as the Irvine Master Chorale, a community group “with serious but not realistic ambitions,” Alexander said. Life has changed: In addition to the 160-voice ensemble’s local four-concert season, it will make appearances with the Pasadena, Long Beach and Pacific symphonies and has slated recording sessions for two CDs.

“If someone does all of our (rehearsals, performances and recording sessions), they’ll be out 92 evenings in a year,” Alexander said.

In May, Alexander was named chairman of choral activities at Cal State Fullerton, ending 22 years in a similar capacity at Cal State Northridge.

Morten (Skip) Lauridsen, meanwhile, is chairman of USC’s composition department; his “Mid-Winter Songs” has become one of the most widely performed American cycles since its premiere in 1981, commissioned as a chamber work for USC’s centennial. Robert Duerr introduced the orchestral version two years later in Pasadena. Last year it was heard at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in a benefit performance by the USC Symphony, Chamber Singers and Concert Choir. Indeed, the work has been getting more exposure than many staples of the repertory.

“What struck me was that it would fit so unbelievably well with the Brahms Requiem,” Alexander said. In “Mid-Winter Songs,” the poet “begs that the sun not set, that the light be extended as long as possible. This is what happens to us. We want to extend the light as long as possible. In the Requiem, we realize that our time on Earth is limited, and it shows us how to deal with that.

“The Lauridsen is going to become a major staple of the choral repertoire.”

Which underscores Alexander’s ongoing mission for the Pacific Chorale.

“In the early days, our goal was to provide classical music for Orange County, to perform the great masterworks,” he said. “That is still a goal. But there are masterworks that are going to live in the repertory that people in Orange County have never even heard of.

“Presenting new music, particularly by living American composers, is a major mission change, and sometimes a difficult position to market. It means careful selection of works--that the works can be perceived as music by the audience is very important.”

He laughed. “That’s socially acceptable to say these days.”

* John Alexander conducts the Pacific Chorale in works by Brahms, Howard Hanson and Morten Lauridsen on Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 p.m. $15-$40. (714) 740-2000 (Ticketmaster).