A Taste of Mexican Vivacity and Verve

Instrumental music based on the European classical tradition has been pretty well internationalized and homogenized. Vocal ensembles, however, still preserve local standards of sound and polish, as the University of Veracruz Chorale demonstrated most engagingly Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Some of it was the music, of course. The visiting chorus--composed of more mature voices than most college choirs in this country--closed its program with unaccompanied arrangements of Mexican folk and popular songs seldom encountered here. Our local groups are missing some sure-fire hits in relatively simple but utterly winning choral songs such as “Caminante del Maya,” the sassy, up-tempo “La Bikina” and the tenderly nostalgic “Cancion Mixteca.”

Least likely to be copied successfully were two jarocho-style songs, repeated in encore. Extremely fast yet inflected with great character and verve, these pieces allowed the visitors to project their loose, supple sense of ensemble and their bright but soft-grained sound to vivid effect. Dwayne Condon--pianist for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which presented the concert--delivered manic accompaniments with stylish, bravura flair.

The bulk of director Daniel Hazan’s program, however, centered around multimovement, para-liturgical works drawing heavily on vernacular styles. Leonard Bernstein’s Hebrew “Chichester Psalms” were something of a surprise in this context, but the jubilant, jazzy swing of the opening fell easily to this limber, joyful chorus. Theo Lebow, from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, supplied a clear, unflappable treble solo. The exposed, bent lines of the third psalm challenged the choir’s uniformity of pitch, but not its serenity of execution.

The “Misa Criolla” by Ariel Ramirez has been popular for a generation now, whereas “La Misa en Mexico,” by the late Ramon Noble, is hardly known here. The “Misa Criolla” features soloists and a small instrumental ensemble, but the chorus is everything in the Noble work. Hazan--who has a somewhat laissez faire approach to entrances and releases, but very firm ideas about pace, dynamics and spirit--guided strong, outgoing performances.