AT CAL STATE L.A. : TENOR EIKUM INAUGURATES PACIFIC MUSIC CENTER

The inaugural performance of the Pacific Contemporary Music Center, held at Cal State Los Angeles Friday night, very conservatively displayed the nonprofit group’s avowed intentions of “encouraging performance and awareness of . . . composers of the Pacific Rim countries.” The eclectic program was a good omen for the center’s growth, but the performance itself--by tenor Rex Eikum and pianist Jeong Jin--was hardly an ideal curtain-raiser.

The Ohio-based Eikum possesses an admirably solid technique--glints of Heldentenor metal showed from time to time--and generally crisp diction, but time and Wagnerian tenor roles have obviously taken their toll on the instrument. The middle voice rings out pleasantly, and softly turned phrases were stylishly done, but when pressed by tessitura or drama, Eikum forced far too much. Vocal lines begun promisingly often came to grief.

Further, his program--varied, colorful and full of surprises--overemphasized Eikum’s vocal shortcomings: there was no power in reserve for the melodrama of “Three Diabolical Songs,” a triptych of miniature Biblical scenas composed by Wallace DePue, Eikum’s colleague at Bowling Green University, and “The Stones Cry Out,” from a song cycle by Australian composer John Antill, was reduced to a series of isolated notes, with no connective musical tissue.

When allowed by the music to relax somewhat, Eikum fared much better, bringing a sweet Irish tenor quality to an Australian folk melody by Dulcie Holland. “Flower-seed,” a three-song cycle by Korean-American composer Byong-yon Kim (who also serves as impresario for the center’s concert series) received a beguiling, low-keyed performance.

Perhaps Eikum was attempting to compensate for the generally overbearing and untidy accompaniments of pianist Jin, for when composer Jack Jarrett served as accompanist for three of his songs, the tenor was freed from the concern of being drowned out and contributed nuanced, sensitive work.