‘Legends’: Enthusiastic but Could Have Used More Polish

Appropriately, the inaugural event in the first-ever concert series at the Skirball Cultural Center--overlooking the San Diego Freeway at Mulholland Drive--was titled “Jewish Legends of American Music” and celebrated the work of Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Ernest Bloch. The collection of game, enthusiastic, often unpolished performances heard Thursday night in the small but resonant auditorium represented the coming together of community pride and professional achievement.

Still, that achievement sometimes sagged. At the end of the generous program, for instance, half a hundred high school students produced a cloudy run-through of Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” preceded by a movement from Bloch’s “Sacred Service.” Goodwill aside, these performances simply needed cleaning up.

Best in this lineup was Bernstein’s “Arias and Barcarolles” (1988), a work available in several incarnations; this one utilized mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, with two pianists at one keyboard. Deborah Shulman Bachlund and Gary Bachlund (a tenor, but never mind--Lenny wouldn’t have cared) were the cannily expressive and word-bright protagonists; at the keyboard were Neal Stulberg and Neal Brostoff, adding pianistic color to Bernstein’s irritatingly clever texts.

Stulberg conducted the opening work, the 13-instrument version of Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” with his usual flair. At the end of the evening, the conductor was Ilan Glasman, leading the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers of the Hamilton High School Academy of Music; the boy alto soloist was Micah Hauptman.

At mid-program violinist Mark Kashper, a highly visible member of the L.A. Philharmonic, gave an idiomatic performance of Bloch’s virtually forgotten “Baal Shem” Suite.