Pacific Chorale Thinks Berlioz and Thinks Big

Hector Berlioz is the composer famous for writing for gigantic forces. His legendary Requiem, for instance, calls for four separate brass choirs and 16 kettledrums, as well as the usual orchestral lineup.

The story goes that one day a supercilious observer tried to insult Berlioz. “Are you not the composer who writes for 1,000 musicians?”

“No, Monsieur,” Berlioz answered. “Sometimes I write for 750.”

Apparently he had more than that in mind when he wrote the Te Deum, one of two works that open the Pacific Chorale’s season Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. At its premiere in 1855, in conjunction with the Industrial Exhibition in Paris, the piece was performed by combined forces numbering 950.

“In the Te Deum, Berlioz created a double-choir format,” John Alexander, who conducts the Pacific Chorale, noted recently. “Sopranos head one choir, altos the other. Then he heard a children’s choir. So he asked for an additional 600 children’s voices as a third choir.

“We’re going to do that version. It can be done without [a third choir].”

Alexander and the Pacific will be singing the work with a mere 350 voices, however, and only 80 will be children’s.

Still, “we may be the largest choir in Southern California, with the exception of the Southern California Mormon Choir,” the conductor said. “We have 175 singers. We don’t always sing with 175, but we have them on our roster if we need them.”

The 80 children make up the separate Pacific Chorale Children’s Chorus. The Pacific Symphony will number another 100 musicians.

“It’s a big work,” Alexander said.

The Te Deum reflects the influence of the Requiem, which had been composed about a dozen years earlier, but it “has a lot more vitality because the text demands it,” Alexander continued.

“Berlioz rearranged the [standard Te Deum] text in a way that creates more drama. There’s a phrase--’Judex Crederis’--that refers to the Last Judgment, but in context it doesn’t have the same weight and impact as the ‘Dies Irae’ text [in the Requiem]. So he takes this one phrase out and makes it his final choral movement. That creates a better sense of drama than is usually available to us in the Te Deum text, which sort of goes out with a whimper otherwise.

“What Berlioz has done is bring back the Day of Judgment. This goes out with a bang.”

More than that was on the composer’s mind. He wanted to include an organ along with the vocal and instrumental forces, but he wanted it placed as far away from the choirs and the orchestra as possible.

“Berlioz doesn’t use the organ as part of the orchestra; he uses it in contrast,” Alexander said. “The orchestra he called ‘the Emperor,’ and the organ he called ‘the Pope.’ So it’s a dialogue between the Emperor and the Pope--sort of a contest.”

The other work on the program also is something of a dialogue--the Prologue in Heaven from Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele,” in which the devil challenges God to a wager over Faust’s soul.

“We have built our reputation on being a large symphonic choir,” Alexander said. “It’s where we started out 28 years ago. The very first thing the chorale did was Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah.’ They did it with an organ in a university gymnasium [at UC Irvine], but they already were dedicating themselves to large-scale works.”

But, he said, “financially we are limited in how many performances we can do. Choral music has never been as easy to sell as opera or symphonic music. It’s getting better. Our audience is showing that. But it’s still harder to create financing for a professional choir and to draw the crowds in, particularly with the very large hall we have to deal with. Very few choirs sing in a hall that has a seating capacity of 3,000. That also affects the number of programs we do.”

Because the chorale also sings on the Pacific Symphony, Long Beach and Pasadena Symphony seasons, Alexander waits to see those groups’ programs before choosing his own “so the experiences balance out for the people who follow us.”

The chorale’s season will continue with a Christmas program Dec. 17, an a cappella program April 14 and Bach’s Mass in B minor on May 11.

“We’ve always avoided early music on our series,” Alexander said. “We’ve sung no Bach because I don’t think Bach can be done with 175 voices. So we’re introducing our smaller group of 50 singers and will use an orchestra of 36 players.

“I know that using period instruments--or replicas--and small choirs is the thing to do today. I spent a week listening to recordings just to get my ears into the period instruments’ orchestral sound. I just determined that is not what’s in my ear for this music.

“I heard a performance of the B minor just last year led by Helmut Rilling. I was mesmerized by his performance. It had clear, clean, expressive motives, which I think choral music is about. Expressive in a different way--[by motive] rather than by phrase structure. It was done with modern instruments. It had power and grandeur. I think Bach would have loved hearing it. This is the way I’m going to do it.”

* John Alexander will conduct the Pacific Chorale and the Pacific Symphony in Berlioz’s Te Deum and the Prologue from Boito’s “Mefistofele” Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tenor Jonathan Mack and bass Michael Gallup will be the soloists. 7:30 p.m. $18 to $90. (714) 252-1234.