Mozart Receives Monumental Treatment

It’s intriguing to ponder that Mozart’s two most imposing religious choral works, the Requiem and the “Great” Mass in C Minor, K. 427, were both unfinished. Though the Requiem, by virtue perhaps of the deathbed mystique surrounding it, receives more attention, the “Great” Mass also offers interesting choices to performers--what to leave out, what, if anything, to add.

Sidney Weiss, the Glendale Symphony and the Occidental-Foothill Master Chorale sidestepped the “Great” Mass controversies at the Alex Theatre on Saturday night, offering what amounted to a torso of a torso. Leaving the questions of how to perform the Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus to the scholars, Weiss conducted just the opening Kyrie and the giant, multi-sectioned Gloria--the only movements that Mozart completed from start to finish.

Though that reduced the work’s time span from just under an hour to about 35 minutes, what remained was fairly satisfying, thanks to the darkish power of the music and also to Weiss’ broad tempos and monumental treatment, a throwback to the mind-set of his old boss at the Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini.

Jennifer Ellis offered a fresh, unmannered rendering of the first soprano part--best when soaring in the upper register--understandably overshadowing second soprano Claire Fedoruk and tenor Christian Marcoe, given the way the parts are written.

The “Great” Mass anchored a mostly enterprising, mostly Mozart lineup, with the Overture to “Idomeneo” and the ever-buoyant Horn Concerto No. 4 leading off the evening.

Yet Weiss’ leisurely way with Mozart seemed less at home in these pieces than in the Mass, as French hornist James Atkinson carefully negotiated the Concerto’s treacherous solo part.

And the mid-concert segue from a grandiose symphonic-pops suite of Christmas carols by onetime Glendale Symphony conductor Carmen Dragon to Mozart’s sublime choral miniature “Ave Verum Corpus” didn’t make much musical sense.