The Pacific Symphony Embraces a Challenge

Carl St.Clair brought a generous program, with two soloists, to the opening week of his 13th season at the helm of the Pacific Symphony Wednesday night in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The orchestra played with a virtuosic panache not always present at the beginning of its season.

Variety marked the agenda, which began with the premiere of the orchestral version of a set of songs by the American opera composer Tobias Picker, “Tres Sonetos de Amor”; offered the local debut of the Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen in Liszt’s E-flat Concerto; and concluded with the sprawling beauties in Richard Strauss’ tone poem, “A Hero’s Life.”

This is a demanding program for the 24-year-old orchestra, but the players met all its exigencies with abundant resourcefulness. St.Clair elicited luscious lyricism and a wonderful palette of colorful, quiet playing from the orchestra in Picker’s evocative, neo-Romantic songs. It gave Liszt’s familiar concerto its contrasts and its bravado, perfectly matching Cohen’s brilliant overview of the piece, and found the full kaleidoscope of musical egomania in Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben.”

Strauss’ tone poems tend to go on and on--in these purely instrumental works, unlike his opera scores, the composer did not have the restraining influence of his astute librettists. St.Clair & Co. offered this paean to the composer’s narcissism all its self-trumpeting, musical bite and indulgent detailing, and one had to admire the brightness of the playing. But the work’s length still modified its thrills.

Before the concert, Picker explained that he considered his work a premiere, but only of sorts. The settings of three poems by Pablo Neruda had been created for different forces and were re-imagined for baritone and full orchestra. It was also revealed that Picker’s Pacific Symphony commission came at the behest of Pacific Symphony donor Michael Kerr, as a 40th birthday surprise for his wife, Kari.

Nathan Gunn, an American baritone of great refinement and unlimited promise, was the right soloist in Picker’s handsome settings. They are likely to be a serious addition to the repertory: the music effortlessly amplifies the emotional ambience of the texts, and the three songs offer handsome contrasts.

For an encore, Gunn sang the Serenade from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” at a most persuasive tempo, savoring the words, and with a honeyed tone perfectly suited to the aria.

Here, St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony achieved an accompaniment that was a high point in the evening.