Mahler Resonates in Crystal Cathedral

The Crystal Cathedral, in which William Hall conducted Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (“Symphony of a Thousand”) on Thursday, turns loud and complex music into sonic soup.

Echoes rebound from echoes and it becomes virtually impossible at times to tell where music is coming from, make out words, distinguish individual musical lines or testify as to whether whole groups of instruments are even playing.

Fortunately, not all the piece is at full industrial strength, and it was here, in the quieter passages, mostly past Part One (“Veni, Creator Spiritus”) that the performance made its greatest and undeniable impact.

Hall conducted what was billed as an Orange County premiere with deep empathy for the composer’s fine-honed as well as intense rhetoric.

Particularly lovely moments included the introduction to Part Two (the final scene of Goethe’s “Faust,” as adapted by the composer) and the choruses leading up to the appearance of the Mater Gloriosa.

Goethe’s poetry, it should be noted, is itself compellingly inspirational and visionary. That is, it was for those who paid the extra $3 for a program that had the Latin and German texts and could follow them in the murky amplification.

Indeed, the amplification and the ambient noise (from air-conditioning?) made any judgments about the eight vocal soloists completely unreliable. It was obvious they worked hard to be expressive in a situation that must have been brutal for them.

For the record, they were sopranos Carol Neblett, Renee Sousa and Patricia Prunty; mezzos Wendy Hillhouse and Martha Jane Weaver; tenor Thomas Oberjat; baritone Dean Elzinga; and bass Louis Lebherz.

The choral groups included the Hall Master Chorale and Children’s Chorus, the Crystal Cathedral choirs, the Chapman University and Irvine Valley College choirs, and the All-American Boys Chorus.

Hall led the Master Chorale Orchestra. Frederick Swann was the organist.