BERKELEY - Between the opposing forces of this city's many fine Jacobins
on one hand, and famous scholars of religion on the other, Kent Nagano's
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra produced a surprisingly ostinato faith-based
season-opening concert Wednesday night, in Zellerbach Hall.

Religion and music have been known to be linked before, of course, but
consider the lopsidedly Christian nature of this program in an otherwise
prominently secular community:

Gyorgy Ligeti's 1966 "Lux Aeterna," Galina Ustvolskaya's 1987 "Molitva"
("Prayer"), Olivier Messiaen's 1934 "L'Ascension," and Beethoven's 1803
"Christ on the Mount of Olives."

Regardless of ideological issues, an interesting program, and performed
very well.  The appearance of the Beethoven oratorio on the program was
especially welcome.  Fully as operatic as "Fidelio," complete with arias,
duets and a trio, this is a strangely, unjustly neglected work.  Richard
Grant's Pacific Mozart Ensemble made both "Christus" and the austere,
atmospheric, a cappella Ligeti a truly spiritual experience...  if short
on passion, more about which later.

Two soloists made the evening special: mezzo Jennifer Palmer Boesing's
powerful performance in "Molitva" and tenor Bruce Sledge's clear,
effortless projection in the Beethoven.

Ustvolskaya's work is called "Symphony No.  4," but it makes more sense
to use its subtitle.  A nine-minute work performed by a singer and three
instrumentalists (one playing a tam-tam or gong) doesn't really fit the
category in the conventional sense.  Just like the "Lux Aeterna," "Prayer"
too is a static "sound-sculpture," using two simple themes, repetitively
rather than in variations, but coming across as something well worth
hearing.

Over dense figures from Jerry Kuderna's piano and Kale Cumings' trumpet
(the gong going loud and nonstop), Boesing made up for the lack of an
orchestra one would expect in a "symphony." Hers is a large, dark,
powerful voice, her delivery is intense and commanding.

It's difficult to find two singers more different in one concert than
Boesing and Sledge, and yet both were impressive, in their own ways.
As Sledge sang the role of Jesus in the Beethoven oratorio, his voice
appeared light, his delivery was the opposite of Boesing's - uninvolved,
to a fault.

Speaking of opposites, there is a notable difference between Sledge
and Jane Eaglen, but they have the same problem: both produce sound
(spectacularly, in her case; promisingly, in his) instead of music.

Still, Sledge, who completed the Merola Program just a couple of years
ago, is a young man, going places.  While in Merola, he sang a wonderful
Lindoro in Rossini's "L'Italiana," and in Berkeley, he dazzled again
with the kind of "clean," clear, effortless tenor that one day, with
luck, may be compared with Jozsef Reti or Gosta Winbergh - a voice that
cuts through the orchestra and reaches into the back of the auditorium
effortlessly.  Next month, he'll sing the Count in New York City Opera's
"Barber of Seville," and I bet he'll eat that impossible hall for
breakfast.

What you hear in Sledge's portrayal of Jesus' torment in face of the
approaching crucifixion are the notes (impressive as they are), not the
feelings.  I hope he had a chance to hear Boesing; when his voice and
her performance coalesce in the future, Sledge may well become one of
the handful of Mozart-to-Verdi-to-Wagner tenors around.

The two other soloists in the Beethoven, "lyric soprano" (said the
program) Pamela Coburn and bass Christopher Robertson, performed with
the same excellence as the chorus and orchestra, under Nagano's direction.
I don't want to over-emphasize the blandness in Sledge's performance,
but given the prominence of his role in the work, it all turned into
something "well done," but not nearly as powerful as it could have -
and should have - been.

No such problem with the Messiaen.  Here, Nagano's long-time intimate
knowledge of the material, combined with committed, passionate orchestral
work, the message - so similar to Beethoven's - prevailed as a lyrical
march for the Church Militant and Triumphant, albeit short on bird calls.

Janos Gereben/SF
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