Sounds of the ‘thaw’

GREEN is the color of renewal -- grass, trees and all that -- and the shade of a not healthy face. Green stands for progressive politics. Through a quick search of the Internet, I learned about Green Christianity, which treats our ecological crisis as a spiritual one.

So it makes a kind of sense to think of Stalin’s shadow as casting a queasy green pall -- nauseating but also compelling spiritual rebirth. Such was the pall cast at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Tuesday night for the Green Umbrella component to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Shadow of Stalin” series.

The stage, as always at these concerts, was bathed in an unattractive green light, but whether or not by coincidence, that meant something this time. The program focused on composers Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke and their music from the ‘70s and ‘80s. This was the time of the “thaw,” the supposed greening of Soviet culture. But even with Stalin long dead, dissidence was still dangerous, especially when allied with dissonance and with these composers’ defiant Christian mysticism.

Moreover, Gubaidulina (born in 1931, three years before Schnittke) has a thing about colors. She is a synesthesiast, which is to say to she associates pitches with specific hues.

Gubaidulina’s “In Croce,” an incredibly strange piece for cello and organ, was given a gripping performance by Ben Hong and Mark Robson. The organ begins in its top registers, tweeting like a bird. The cello comes in droning at its lowest pitches, like the groaning of the Earth. Suddenly, the organ announces something important with A-major fanfares. A-major represented green for Scriabin, the early 20th century Russian composer who was a major influence on Gubaidulina’s style.

“In Croce,” written in 1979, symbolizes Christ on the cross. The organ gradually descends to its deepest bass, where pitch turns into visceral vibrations that cause the feet to tingle. The cello lifts off, headed for heaven. When the instruments cross, they send out supernatural Morse codes, quick assurances about the adventures ahead. It is an amazing piece.

The concert began with Gubaidulina’s “Concordanza” for 10 players, conducted by Alexander Mickelthwate. The title is ironic. This dance of concord leads to discord. Written in 1971, the score reveals a composer at a crossroads. She wrote film scores (as did Schnittke). She experimented with Western avant-garde techniques in order to feel musically alive. But she sought a more meditative approach, which she soon found in the tense “In Croce.”

Schnittke’s Symphony No. 4, written in 1984, was the evening’s big work. It is an unconventional chamber symphony with lots of bells and gongs as well as big parts for piano, celesta and harpsichord and small parts for four vocal soloists.

Describing the score, Schnittke, who died in 1998, said that it represents the rosary and includes “five happy, five tragic and five miraculous episodes from the Mother of God.” In it, Schnittke brilliantly combined the musical traditions of Russian Orthodoxy with the grandly dissident symphonic tradition of Shostakovich.

Structurally, the symphony is a complex series of variations on what the composer called Jewish, Catholic and Orthodox music. But the sheer power of sound is its most striking element. The bells ring and ring, creating an epic shimmer that turned the hall’s green light, at least in the imagination, to dazzling gold. The keyboards crash and tinkle mysteriously. Winds, strings and brass find their own odd ways to enthrall.

Short vocalises by tenor Timur Bekbosunov and mezzo-soprano Gian-Carla Tisera, respectively, ended the first and second sections. Soprano Karen Hogle Brown and bass-baritone Aaron Cain sat patiently for 40 minutes until the symphony ended with a numinous vocal quartet and bells fading into the distance.

Mickelthwate, who is nearing the end of his tenure as the orchestra’s associate conductor, led a masterful, commanding performance. Indeed, it might have been his going out in a blaze of glory. But fate has given him a chance for more: He will replace Miguel Harth-Bedoya, who is ill, at the Philharmonic’s concerts this weekend.

mark.swed@latimes.com