LA JOLLA SYMPHONY EXPLORES LOSS IN PREMIERE
Conductor Jeffrey Malecki took the podium Saturday evening in Mandeville Auditorium for the world premiere of Sang Song’s “Frozen Grief.”
The title refers to a phrase coined by psychiatrist Pauline Boss to describe the response to a loss without closure. Boss points out that frozen grief can occur with not only a death of a close one, but also losses “of livelihood, of possibility, of dreams, of plans.”
Song — a doctoral student at the University of California San Diego — didn’t specify if “Frozen Grief ” had an autobiographical component, but given its 2022 composition date, it’s hard not to see it as an exploration of ambiguous losses suffered during the pandemic.
A trombone soloist, Berk Schneider, was the protagonist to the “Deluge” of the first movement and the “Five Stages of Grief ” in the second.
Song has a unique sonic identity, as revealed on his Soundcloud site. Recent works focus on climbing and/or descending melodies in both foreground and background. In “Frozen Grief,” we hear an angry trombone line tumbling down against a backdrop of strings and winds pecking away at more slowly rising and falling lines.
In spite of the title, there is an almost clinical detachment in Song’s exploration of grief, mirrored in other works such as “Gretel” (on the Lyle and Erik Menendez killings) or “Scars” (a rumination on PTSD). Rather than elicit a visceral reaction with violent music, Song lays out a musical scenario and invites us to observe and think about what we’ve heard/seen.
This curious distance between musical material and emotion leads to a resonant experience inviting post-concert reflection.
In Schneider, Song had a valiant proponent, further aided by Malecki and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.
The first half may have closed with grief, but it opened with the whimsy of “The Chairman Dances” by John Adams. Malecki and the orchestra never quite found their groove.
In a good performance, conflicting patterns should emerge and submerge back into the ensemble texture and pointillistic sparks should be thrown off. These should tug against the constant quarter-note pulse. It’s a dance, but one where the participants have had a little too much to drink and their offbeat hiccups threaten to pull the thing apart.
Malecki’s tempos were sluggish, and all too often, patterns that should have crescendoed and diminished were subsumed into the overall texture. The performance was earnest but unfocused, and it would have benefited from more tongue in cheek.
For their first concert appearance in Mandeville in three years, members of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus gathered onstage for Rossini’s “Stabat Mater.” They’ve seemed adrift ever since former conductor David Chase’s final concert in 2017.
New choral director Arian Khaefi has his work cut out for him. The leadership changes over the last five years and the reduced performing during the pandemic have taken their tolls.
There wasn’t enough power during loud passages. This might be due, in part, to the lesser number of tenors and basses. Their ensemble work could be cleaner. Let’s hope Khaefi can tighten them up and recruit some more men’s voices.
The soloists — soprano Victoria Robertson, mezzo Sarabeth Belón and baritone Travis Sherwood — sang splendidly. Robertson had a good, confident tone in “Qui est homo,” and Belón had a nice heft in her lower range. Their voices blended well in this duet. Sherwood sang with operatic security in a pleasant, rounded tone.
Tenor Bernardo Bermudez seemed to have an off night.
The orchestra responded well to Malecki’s direction. Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” isn’t regular concert fare here, so the opportunity to hear it live was appreciated.