VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Chorale Goes Beyond Musical Ornaments : The Ventura group blends energizing dose of Monteverdi with familiar carols and multicultural tunes.

Every Christmas, musical organizations are faced with a dilemma. Does one fall naturally into the reflexive celebratory spirit of the season and rely on chestnuts, ignore the holiday imperative altogether, or, better yet, find new paths toward exploring the meaning and culture of the season?

Admirably, the Ventura Master Chorale chose the last option for its recent Christmas program, “Out of Silence--A Holiday Vigil,” which finished its three-concert run last weekend at the San Buenaventura Mission and at the Mt. Cross Lutheran church in Camarillo.

A relatively serious-minded and multicultural exploration of the carol tradition and an energizing dose of Monteverdi contributed to a program that consisted of more than just pretty musical ornaments.

There’s little time to waste in this, the group’s three-concert, 15th anniversary season, and director Burns Taft has made sure to bolster the season with significance: Stravinsky’s “Les Noces” in October’s opening concert, Monteverdi’s “Vespers” in the Christmas concert and Bach’s grand B Minor Mass in May.

Saturday night at Mt. Cross, a hillside parish overlooking the lights of the city, the concert opened warmly enough. A heartwarmingly sincere Children’s Chorus, lightly abetted by members of the Master Chorale, provided tunes, including Pachelbel’s Canon--in a charmed, innocent context--and Haydn’s “Lo, My Shepherd.”

Clearly, the Monteverdi was the centerpiece of the program. Everything else paled by comparison. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), a critical link between early music and the “enlightened” western tradition, between the Renaissance and Baroque eras, should, with any justice, be a household-name composer by now. Yet, it still depends on which household you’re dealing with.

The composer’s so-called “Christmas Vespers,” based on Psalms alluding to Christmas-oriented themes, amounted to an ambitious, neatly realized production number on the part of the Master Chorale. It was staged with the chorale divided into various modules, to either side of the stage and also in the balcony.

The nine-piece instrumental complement--several strings and the mellow brass charge of trombones--was situated with the organ serving as a literal and archetypal anchor in the middle of it. In all, it came across as an encompassing swirl of sound.

Often the music organizes itself around pairings, of violinists or soloists: sopranos Carol Bentzen, Karen Medrano and Janice Schuss, altos Linda Foster Joanne Goertz and Anne Ward, tenors Kenneth Helms, Mark Thomas and Randal Wendt, and basses Lee Oliver and Roland Purnell.

Their voices rang out clearly, when not enhancing the Master Chorale’s solid ensemble performance.

In the concert’s second half, the inevitable subject of Christmas carols came up, but was dealt with in an intelligent, subtle way. Jackson Berkey’s package, “Anniversary Carols” applies a new spin to old songs.

Refreshingly, “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful” come with altered phrasings and harmonizing of tunes ingrained in our psyches.

“Jesu, Son Most Sweet and Dear” found tenor Tom German repairing to the rear of the balcony, issuing plaintive lines over a soft, ethereal choral bed. Songs from the Jewish tradition, and lesser-known songs from Spain and England rounded out the cultural spectrum.

After all was sung and done, the group opted for some earnest kitsch by closing with “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and visions of Perry Como’s sweater collection danced through our heads.

Yes, it was a chestnut, roasted over an open musical fire, shamelessly sentimental and ever-lovable, and quite forgivable in the face of the substantial fare preceding it.

Completely Different: For something completely different, you might have stopped by California 66, home of Ventura’s most reliable jazz venues. The eatery/club continues to host an ongoing series of Saturday night guests and other musical enticements.

Last Saturday, vocalist Carole Diamond, the veteran of jazz-blues wars, showed up bedecked in a spangly red-and-green dress and made her usual musical statement.

True to form, she oscillated between a casual brandishing of jazz chops and a lusty, swaggering taunt. On this night, Diamond sailed over up-tempo readings of the proto-bop standard “Cherokee” and “Four,” replete with snippets of scat. She also waxed indigo blue on “Lover Man.”

The band, led by longtime 66-er bassist Henry Franklin, drove a hard bargain and covered the bases without flinching. They lit a samba-fied funk fire under “What a Difference a Day Makes.” On “I Want to Be Around,” they playfully kept the final turnaround turning around. Looseness becomes them.

This Saturday night, check out noted trombonist Jimmy Zito as special guest. Also on the stand will be the bold, Santa Barbara-based pianist “Teddy”--alias Theo--Saunders, who has also been playing solo early Friday nights.