When a composer writes a new piece for solo singers, chorus and orchestra that expresses a fervent, naively idealistic hope for humanity, the last thing he needs is to have it programmed next to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which is more or less in the same vein. It invites unwelcome comparisons.

Such was the fate of composer Kevin Beavers, whose “Songs From the Discovery” had its world premiere Sunday night on a program by Barry Jekowsky and the California Symphony. The piece by the orchestra’s Young American Composer-in-Residence landed with an awkward thud on the stage of the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

I don’t think Beethoven should get the blame, though. Beavers’ 25-minute diptych, setting two remarkable poems by the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, would probably have sounded heavy-handed under any circumstances.

The main thrust of the piece comes in the second song, “Discovery,” where Szymborska—in a litany of lines beginning “I believe”—conjures up the vision of a scientist whose work opens the potential for utter annihilation, and who destroys the work and his own career in an act of conscience.

It’s stirring stuff on the page, but Beavers’ thunderous setting, all brass, percussion and impassioned choral outcries, turns it into a dull, overpowering march. Even the gentle, heart-stopping irony of Szymborska’s final line (“My faith is strong, blind and without foundation”) is passed over in the muscular murk, and baritone Anton Belov struggled to be heard.

As a curtain-raiser, Beavers sets “The Acrobat,” a lovely poetic bagatelle in tribute to lighter-than-air artistry. But here, too, the music is thick and schmaltzy; the acrobat sounds like an employee of Ringling Bros. Tenor Kevin Gibbs sang with true, piercing clarity and a delicacy that was otherwise in short supply.

Beethoven might have been a more overwhelming presence if the performance of the Ninth had been more assured. But like the opening rendition of the Overture to Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” it got a reading strong on the fundamental points but shaky in many of the details.

Jekowsky’s conducting was characteristically dramatic and forthright, bringing an air of mystery and transformation to the first movement and shaping the slow movement tenderly. But cohesion among the sections was not up to par, and there were passages whose balance and rhythmic thrust were off.

The Baroque Choral Guild, led by Sanford Dole, made a good showing in the finale, especially in the stirring final pages, and Gibbs lent ringing assurance to the tenor solo. Belov, soprano Courtenay Budd and mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse filled out the solo quartet.

By Joshua Kosman
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com

back to reviews

---

Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410

| home | about | concerts | chorus | cantabile |
| workshop | hire us | news | join |