L.A. Master Chorale Returns With Homage to Mozart

Paul Salamunovich led the Los Angeles Master Chorale in an aptly titled “Majestic Mozart” program Sunday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to open the chorale’s 33rd season.

This was big Mozart, weighty Mozart, monumental and reverential Mozart, and with some exceptions, somewhat dull Mozart.

The program began with the Te Deum, K. 141, written by the astonishing 13-year-old Mozart, and ended with the Requiem, K. 626, left unfinished by the dying composer. It was sung in the 1991 edition by scholar Robert D. Levin.

In between were the sublime “Ave Verum Corpus,” K. 618, and three incidental choruses, K. 345, written for the forgotten play written by the equally forgotten Tobias Philipp Freiherr von Gebler, “King Thamos.”

The chorale sang the local premiere of Levin’s Requiem edition this August at the Hollywood Bowl. Levin’s new Amen fugue didn’t seem persuasive then, and it didn’t sound persuasive now.

Which edition is correct, however, is less the issue than getting any edition across with meaning and feeling. This kind of gargantuan, sluggish, uncharacterized, often full-throttle effort didn’t do it.

At the Bowl, the chorale (led by Nicholas McGegan) was reduced to a flexible 40-voice ensemble. Here, the chorale was at massive, 110-voice strength.

The capable soloists were soprano Virginia Sublett, mezzo-soprano Teresa Brown, tenor Steven Harrison and bass Louis Lebherz.

The “King Thomas” choruses received respectful attention. The youthful Te Deum sounded amazingly accomplished, but the “Ave Verum,” which followed it Sunday, opened up a world that makes comments superfluous.