Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz

EARTHLY PLEASURES AT THE VALLEJO SYMPHONY

At a pre-performance talk January 19 the Vallejo Symphony’s conductor Marc Taddei addressed an early-bird Empress Theater audience with tales of two composers, Haydn and Mahler. He characterized the program we were about to hear as “two approaches to our place in Nature.”

He termed Haydn’s Symphony No. 31 (“Horn Call”) a rousing, joyful celebration of the hunt replete with birdsong and galloping steeds, “man’s triumph over nature.” What Mahler called his “eighth-and-a-half” symphony, Das Lied von der Erde, is about the impermanence of life. One of four Mahler symphonies incorporating voice, it brims with yearning and loneliness. It expresses Mahler’s unhappy state at the time. His four-year-old daughter had just died, he’d lost his conducting job in Vienna and had learned his faulty heart condition was irreversible. The poetic work’s message: Nothing that is human will last, but Earth will endure.

By performance hour the 400-seat hall had nearly filled. People squeezed into narrow seats that surely were made for smaller bodies. The atmosphere was festive (friends waved and greeted one another) and it’s clear that Vallejo residents love their symphony orchestra, with good reason.

Haydn’s D Major Symphony is buoyant and joyful, no doubt reflecting his state of mind at the time. His patron, Prince Esterhazy, had outfitted an orchestra for him that according to Mr. Taddei was “massive for its time,” and included four (count ‘em!) horns. Haydn reveled in this rich sound palette, writing virtuosic solos for violin, cello, double bass, flute, and oboe, and giving novel lush harmonies to the horns. What a thrill for a lad in his twenties! Haydn’s inventiveness and yes, quirkiness blossomed. The orchestra gave this four movement work a splendid reading. All the soloists were stellar.

After intermission the orchestra grew larger for the Mahler. The work’s six sections, set to Chinese poems loosely translated into German, are divided evenly between mezzo soprano and tenor (with the mezzo’s last part the longest by far). Richly expressive, they shift from delicate longing to explosions of pessimism. Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz’s voice was gorgeous, combined with consummate acting and subtle gestures that conveyed deep feeling. During long orchestral passages that demanded utter stillness, Printz never dropped character for a second. It was stunning.

In the tenor sections, all drinking songs, Corey Bix’s splendid voice too often labored under the orchestra. It was as though the orchestra was a storm and he was a voice trying to be heard. Although this is the way Mahler wrote it, I found it disconcerting. Mr. Taddei had addressed this oddity in his pre-performance talk, proposing that if Mahler had lived to conduct the first performance of Das Lied he might well have decided to adjust the balance. Mahler died before he could introduce the work; that fell to conductor Bruno Walter after Mahler’s death in 1911.

It’s impressive that this regional orchestra could present two such diverse works so convincingly, and the audience showed its delight with an extended standing ovation, after which many patrons joined the performers for a reception in the Empress’ intimate lounge.