Seeking Religious Transcendence in Works by Stravinsky, Faure

Though neither wrote conventionally sentimental religious music and both composed in vastly different styles, Stravinsky and Faure each wrote masterworks that address human needs at times of religious and personal crisis.

They might, however, be surprised to find themselves on the same program, as they were Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center when Carl St.Clair conducted the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale in Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” and Faure’s Requiem in what were the first performances of the works by the 21-year-old Santa Ana-based orchestra or St.Clair.

The two face in different directions. Stravinsky’s symphony is a plea for mercy and a lonely, undefended encounter with the numinous, transcendent otherness that is God. Faure’s music is meant to wrap a bereft mourner in waves of warmth and comfort.

Few of these qualities emerged in the performances.

St.Clair’s “Parsifal”-like tempos and the huge, coolish sound created by the 150-some-voice chorale stripped Faure’s Requiem of its desirable intimacy. It seemed to make little difference what words were being sung, so little character was delineated. In this regard, the soloists, soprano Kelley Nassief and baritone Daniel Mobbs, made modest contributions.

Stravinsky liked to talk about the impersonality and inexpressibility of music, and this performance did little to dispel the notion that his scores lacked emotion. But that simply isn’t true of this incandescent work. Its challenges--intricate rhythms, balance problems--probably dominated everyone’s consciousness, and their adherence to the letter of the law should be noted. But let us hope that increasing familiarity and frequency will reveal its deeper elements.

St.Clair opened the program with Haydn’s austere Symphony No. 49 (“La passione”), which served basically as a valuable exercise in ensemble precision.

Raymond Kobler, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1980-98, was the guest concertmaster as the orchestra searches to fill the position.