‘Stone’ at Last Touches Hearts

The saving grace of Paul McCartney’s second symphonic work, the 77-minute tone poem “Standing Stone,” is its poignant and climactic finale after three pleasant but non-engrossing earlier movements.

Touching performances of that simple but eloquent closing were achieved twice over the weekend, in the symphony’s Southern California premieres. The first, Saturday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, had William Hall leading an excellent orchestra with his William Hall Master Chorale; on Sunday night in the Hollywood Bowl, John Mauceri conducted his Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in an outdoor re-creation of the work.

Hall had the advantage of three orchestral rehearsals--Mauceri had but two--and no amplification. In Segerstrom Hall, what you heard was what they did, and vice versa. At the Bowl, as usual, aural illusion reigns, sometimes truthful, sometimes not. On a good night, you hear good intentions; Sunday was nearly a good night.

Still, Mauceri used two extramusical devices extraordinarily well: octogenarian actress Gloria Stuart reading aloud McCartney’s colorful Celtic-lore poem describing the work’s narrative, and two lines of Bowl ushers holding candles in the aisles by the box seats in the finale. Was the visual reference to Bernstein’s “Mass”? It looked that way, but it may also have been a reference to the recent death of Linda McCartney, to whom this and the Costa Mesa performance were dedicated.

McCartney’s work, 10 minutes longer at the Bowl than in Costa Mesa because of the poetry-reading, tells a story of world and human creation in the first movement.

In the sometimes engaging second, a hero arrives and has adventures, summed up by “Lost at Sea” and “Release.” Further adventures involving a beautiful shepherdess, hostile warriors, a lunar eclipse and the putting up of a memorializing stone occupy the colorful Movement III. In the finale, the hero decides to remain, with the shepherdess, where he has been saved.

With the technical aid and moral support of a team of four fellow composers--no more than advisory help, he says--McCartney last year created this shallow but entertaining musical narrative. It is unbroken by text until the final minutes; before that, the chorus sings wordlessly and not a lot. Overall, what one hears is pleasing but one-dimensional, a would-be epic in a kindergarten musical language. There is no development because this composer doesn’t do development. Some nice tunes suffice; the final one proves most effective.

In Costa Mesa, before a decent-sized audience of 2,407 in a house holding 2,900, Hall led his highly accomplished orchestra of 65 players in a sweeping and detailed performance, aided handsomely by 186 members of the William Hall Master Chorale, whose 1998-99 season was opened by this performance.

At the Bowl, Mauceri entertained his audience of 5,575 auditors with his usual alacrity and flair, though the clarity and transparency heard Saturday seldom colored the Sunday reading. The L.A. Master Chorale sang splendidly and achieved the same chills-down-the-spine in the finale experienced the night before.

Sitting in front of the Bowl orchestra, Stuart, looking elegant in a true-blue beaded gown, read the poem smoothly. The orchestra played fitfully; perhaps this kind of uncomplicated score is most exposing to an instrumental ensemble.

On the other hand, Hall’s band sounded terrific, especially the strings. Among the outstanding solo voices, one must single out concertmaster Franklyn d’Antonio, cellist Armen Ksadjikian, hornist James Thatcher and trumpeter Jon Lewis.