Singers’ ‘Baroque Brilliance’ Is Dulled by Artistic Hurdles

The program was promoted as offering “Baroque Brilliance,” but the John Alexander Singers lacked their usual luster Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

There were many problems. Alexander was asking the 34-member group--the elite chamber choir taken from the 160-strong Pacific Chorale--to carry off a program of texturally transparent 18th century works in a venue as massive and impersonal as the pieces were intimate. He pitted his singers against a seemingly suitably sized orchestra--18 instrumentalists from the Pacific Symphony and the chorale’s accompanist, Lori Loftus, at the Curtis Berak harpsichord--that overpowered the singers.

Alexander tried to prevent four unrelated religious compositions from taking away the audience’s attention by throwing in Corelli’s Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 7, in D before the finale, but the instrumental diversion proved minimal. Corelli’s concerto may have great historical importance, but it would have required a world-class performance to hold its own as the only nonvocal piece of the evening. This reading proved more somnambulant than stimulating, though concertmaster Paul Manaster--matched with violinist Chien Tan, as soloist--did his best to enliven.

Other showmanly touches served better. One can argue over the role of the countertenor during this particular period, but in the end, who wouldn’t take notice when a male alto is used to balance a female soprano as Joseph Mathieu was in works by Francesco Durante, Handel and Gregorio Allegri? Mathieu blended well, attending to textual content and, when necessary, managing to carry over his accompanists.

The most successful bit of theatrics was the offstage placement of sopranos Linda Williams Pearce and Nancy Beach, Mathieu and bass Tom Ringland, as the solo quartet, and of bass Craig Mitchell, as the chant soloist, in separate sections of the hall’s second tier, for Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus (Psalm 51). This lent a communal sense of supplication and cleansing. And, as the only a cappella selection on the agenda, the Miserere also let the light, pure tone quality work its desired magic without competition.

The soloists for the evening, including tenor William Smith and bass Dennis Houser, proved strong choral components, but the group starred as a whole, particularly in the most complex, fugal choruses of Francesco Durante’s “Magnificat,” Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” and Bach’s Motet, “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied,” BWV 225--during which clear, flowing lines intertwined with balanced relationships and deft, rhythmic juxtaposition.