The Year In Review: In music and dance, major successes were minor players. : Fond O.C. Memories With a German Accent

1994 began with a geological earthquake in Los Angeles and ended with a financial earthquake in Orange County.

Unfortunately, however, only a few of the local arts groups registered as significantly on any artistic Richter scale. Still, there were a few milestones--some memorable, some not. Here is an arbitrary and admittedly incomplete overview of music and dance events this year in the county:

Carl St.Clair’s conducting of Mahler’s mighty “Resurrection” Symphony in May at the Orange County Performing Arts Center drew enthusiastic critical praise, and was one of the top music events of the year. Opera Pacific’s presentation of Wagner’s “Die Walkure” represented a venturesome musical effort that put a certain nearby northern city to shame.

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio played exemplary Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schubert in February at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, as part of the chamber music series jointly sponsored by the Laguna Chamber Music Society and the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Among dance concerts, the Hungarian Folk Ensemble, in a Philharmonic Society-sponsored program at the center, astonished with the searing intensity of “Dance Words,” a work inspired by an underground political movement, in which people danced traditional folk steps while shouting protest poems by Laszlo Nagy. The piece, seen in March, was choreographed by company artistic director Sandor Timar.

The center brought on its own the electrifying Nederlans Dans Theater in October, its first Southland appearance in 14 years, appearing in company director Jiri Kylian’s full-length “Kaguyahime” and shorter repertory.

More on the Pacific Symphony

* The orchestra started the year with a multimedia concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Guest conductor Christopher Seaman presided over Holst’s “The Planets” as 450 slides, assembled by Los Angeles stage director Marc Jacobs, were projected on screens above the stage. The concept wasn’t simplistic in idea or execution, but Seaman’s untypically low-keyed conducting made the music ancillary to the visuals.

* In February, Alain Lefevre appeared with the orchestra at the center to play and record John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto, the Pacific’s first recording under music director St.Clair and its first recording since 1986. Two works by Pacific composer-in-residence Frank Ticheli filled out the disc, which came out to mixed reviews when issued in August by Koch International Classics.

* August was also the month the orchestra appointed Sheryl Staples, 25, concertmaster, filling a one-year vacancy after Endre Granat resigned in 1993. Though young, Staples comes with solid credentials. We hope that sooner rather than later the orchestra will play works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. with requisite string precision.

* In February, the Pacific (which is based in Santa Ana) expanded its minimal chamber music series at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art there, not by adding concerts but by including a preconcert dinner in the price of the ticket. Noblesse oblige?

* New York composer Elliot Goldenthal came to town in September to work with local Vietnamese musicians in preparation for his large-scale work commissioned by the orchestra to commemorate the suffering inflicted by the Vietnam War. The piece is scheduled to be played in April at the center, after which it will be recorded by Sony Classics. Goldenthal’s reputation rests most recently on his scores for the films “Cobb,” “Interview With the Vampire” and “Aliens.”

* The Pacific gave the premiere of Daniel Lochrie’s unrevelatory edition of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” in December. Interesting to hear, but the standard version by Rimsky-Korsakov’s works better.

The Lyric, Lurching Muse

Opera Pacific began the year with a vulgar, soap-opera version of Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” at the center in January, then surprised everyone by rising honorably to the challenges in Wagner’s “Die Walkure” in March. Unfortunately, within a week, it reverted to its all-too-well-established dull presentations, starting with Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and, in October, Verdi’s “Aida.”

Opera Pacific also hosted a one-day performance of Manuel Panella’s “El Gato Montes” at the center in January before the production moved to the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Though billed as a benefit for the local troupe, Opera Pacific lost about $50,000 in the venture because too few people bought the benefit tickets (which included a post-opera reception) at $500 a pop.

Other Voices

* The Master Chorale of Orange County led by William Hall sang an AIDS memorial concert in October at the Performing Arts Center, one of the few AIDS-awareness programs of the year, outside of “A Day Without Art” commemorations. Hall also led the group in William Walton’s gaudy “Belshazzar’s Feast” at the center in May and Rachmaninoff’s Vespers in February at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.

* John Alexander conducted the Pacific Chorale in a rarefied program of 19th- and 20th-Century French music at the center in April and Brahms’ Requiem plus music by Howard Hanson and Morten Lauridsen at the center in November.

* The Irvine Camerata, a chamber vocal ensemble founded by Robert Hickok in 1989, was silenced--probably permanently--after Hickok, dean of the UC Irvine School of Fine Arts, took early-retirement in June, ending his six years’ tenure. Hickok had been one of the few actual risk-takers in the local arts, leading indispensable but infrequently performed repertory by Handel (“Saul” in 1993) and Schutz (various works, also in 1993).

Other Orchestras

The Orange County Philharmonic Society sponsored a series of conductors and orchestras of variable quality, including, among others, conductor-pianist Philippe Entremont and the Dresden Philharmonic in January, Yevgeny Svetlanov and the State Symphony of Russia in February, Charles Dutoit and the Orchestra National de France also in February, Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg in October and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and the Vienna Symphony in November. All these events took place at the center. There were other society-sponsored concerts sprinkled through the year at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Smaller Orchestras and Groups

* Formerly the Orange County Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster, Diana Halprin began her first season as its upbeat director in October. Unfortunately, a month later the group ran into financial trouble and chose to reduce an orchestral program to a mere two-part separate solo recital by Halprin and pianist William Wolfram. Prices were not reduced, however.

* The Four Seasons Orchestra appeared in its third incarnation since it was founded in 1990 by Carolyn Broe when Roger Hickman led the group at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in November.It’s not clear if its time has come this time either.

* The Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio--also on the Philharmonic Society-Laguna Chamber Music series--applied some uncommon but compelling visceral expression to music by Ravel when it played at the Irvine theater this month. The jointly sponsored season maintained its usual high standards throughout the year and remains one of the near-foolproof items on the local cultural menu.

New Works

* Cal State Fullerton hosted its first “Voces Novae” festival, including works by 18 California composers over three days in April. The ambitious event was organized by composer Lloyd Rodgers.

* Stephen Mosko wrote “Psychotropics” for the Southwest Chamber Music Society, which played the premiere, to mixed reviews, in October in Founders Hall at the Performing Arts Center.

Going On

The Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival, the Cypress Pops Orchestra, the Fullerton Friends of Music, the Harmonia Baroque Players, the Mozart Camerata, the North Orange County Community Concerts Assn. and the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival continue to persevere.

On the Dance Front

* San Francisco Ballet danced the premiere of UCI professor Donald McKayle’s “Gumbo Ya-Ya” at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in February, stealing a march on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, which had commissioned the work but was prevented from dancing it first because of a strike there. Critics were underwhelmed.

* The Royal Ballet of London danced the late Kenneth MacMillan’s ponderous full-length “Mayerling” and tawdry one-act “Judas Tree.” Fortunately, they also danced Frederick Ashton’s heart-breaking “Month in the Country” and exhilarating “The Dream” at the center in May.

* American Ballet Theatre danced MacMillan’s full-length “Manon” for the first time in Southern California in September at the center. This typically overwrought work happily was followed by Twyla Tharp’s dazzling “In the Upper Room” and James Kudelka’s problematic “Cruel World.”

* Signaling a new era of cooperation, the Orange County Philharmonic Society and the Performing Arts Center, which had previously haggled over the society’s presenting non-classical music events there, co-sponsored two ethnic events--the Teatro de Danza Espanola, the Spanish flamenco dance company in October, and Fiesta Navidad, a holiday mariachi celebration in December. “Viva la liberta!”

* At the low end of dance at the center was “The Great Radio City Music Hall Spectacular,” with Susan Anton and the Rockettes in June. The surprising thing was how clunky the famed synchronized choreography actually was. Nostalgic mystique just isn’t what it used to be.

Also

* Juan Talavera of Whittier tried to establish a beachhead for flamenco dance in Brea in May by offering a series of programs at the Curtis Theatre. A second outing occurred in August. The jury is still out deciding whether North County will support this effort. Similar programs this month reportedly sold poorly.

* The Mark Morris Dance Company appeared at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in October, continuing the theater’s adventurous if uneven “Feet First Contemporary Dance Series.” Several local dance maniacs were so jazzed by the program, they flew to Seattle a week and a half later to catch Morris’ full-length “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato,” which, sadly, was bypassing the Southland. Seattle is Morris’ hometown.

* Ballet Pacifica completed its version of the “Nutcracker” at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in December. The Laguna Beach-based company had lost all its sets and costumes in the 1993 fire in that city and had to borrow from other companies to mount a then half-new production at the end of that year. Now the vision is complete.

* Other “Nutcrackers” included the production by Sarma Rosenberg, co-director of the Coast Ballet Theatre in San Clemente.

* Other dance events included Rhapsody in Taps at Orange Coast College in January and Plummer Auditorium in March, the Mehmet Sander troupe at Saddleback College also in March, the Los Angeles-based Avaz international dance troupe at Orange Coast College in April and the St. Joseph Ballet that same month at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Gratefully Reaching Out

Two jazz-classical collaborations took place within the space of about a week. Dancer-choreographer David Parsons collaborated with the Billy Taylor Trio when his company and the jazz ensemble appeared at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in November. Jazz composer and keyboardist Lyle Mays wrote “Twelve Days in the Shadow of a Miracle” for the Debussy Trio, which played the work for the first time a few days earlier as part of the Founders Hall chamber music series at the center.

In Memoriam

Among four works created for Ballet Pacifica at the fourth annual summer Choreographic Project in July was David Allan’s “Capriol Suite” dedicated to Gregory Osborne, the celebrated ballet dancer who died in January at the age of 39. Osborne, who was raised in Newport Beach, had danced for American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada.

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THE YEAR’S BEST

Chris Pasles’ picks:

* The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in February.

* Opera Pacific’s presentation of Richard Wagner’s “Die Walkure” in March at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

* The Hungarian Folk Ensemble, presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society at the Performing Arts Center in March.

* The Pacific Symphony’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, conducted by Carl St.Clair at the Performing Arts Center in May.

* The Nederlans Dans Theater at the Performing Arts Center in October.