A Minor Miracle : How a Jewish Conductor Brought Vatican Choir to an Oceanside Mission for Group’s U.S. Debut

In September, while on vacation in Newport Beach, Gilbert Levine made a day trip to Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, the so-called “King of the Missions.” He found himself completely captivated.

“In the halls of old churches and homes, in synagogues, in any ancient structure, I hear music,” said Levine, the New York-born conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic. “Architecture sings in a way. I heard wonderful music in the walls of this mission.”

Last weekend, others heard it too. In celebration of the mission’s 200th anniversary, Gilbert led the Cappella Giulia of St. Peter’s Basilica, also known as the Vatican choir, in the 485-year-old ensemble’s first-ever performances in the United States.

Just how he managed to secure the ensemble for the occasion, and how it came to be that the historic debut of the pope’s choir fell to a conductor of Jewish faith, requires some background.

“It’s a pretty normal question, given who I am and who he is,” Levine, 50, said between rehearsals last week.

The answer begins with events 10 years ago, when Levine was appointed artistic director and principal conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic--an “odd” appointment, he said, that came at a time of both stringent communism and glasnost. Levine was the first American to head an Eastern European orchestra.

An interview with Newsweek magazine and an audience with Pope John Paul II, former cardinal-archbishop of Krakow, followed. The audience proved to be a private tete-a-tete, not the usual handshake, photo and half-minute of pleasantries.

“I was shown room after room after room,” Levine recalled, “and finally I arrived in the private library of the pope, a room that is incredibly bright, full of light coming in from everywhere. The pope walks up to me and says, ‘I read about you in Newsweek’ . . ..

“He talked to me as if he were honoring the Jewish presence in Poland, as if it were interesting to him for a Jewish conductor to be leading the Krakow orchestra.”

Poland was the site of countless atrocities against the Jews during the Holocaust.

“ ‘How is my orchestra treating you?’ he asked. My orchestra, he said. After 15 or 20 minutes, he gave me an impish grin and said, ‘See you at your concert.’ ”

What concert, Levine wondered? He soon found out. At the pope’s behest, Levine led a concert at the Vatican to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his pontificate, a concert that has been broadcast in the U.S. as a Christmas special.

On this side of the Atlantic, Levine has led major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1993, he took the Krakow Philharmonic on a North American tour but didn’t come west.

After a 1994 performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Rome--a “Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust”--the pope bestowed a knighthood on Levine.

The initial idea for the concert had been Levine’s.

“My mother is a Holocaust survivor. I felt there was a reason for this relationship [with the pope]. I suggested that I’d like to organize a concert to commemorate the Holocaust to which he’d be invited. He turned it around. He said he wanted to host the concert, an extraordinary gesture, to commemorate the Shoah--he used the Hebrew word.”

It was several years later that Levine made his memorable visit to Mission San Luis Rey. He was so taken by the mission he decided to try to bring the Vatican choir to mark the building’s bicentennial.

“You don’t exactly call up and say you’d like to talk to the pope,” Levine said. But that didn’t stop him.

“With just the hint of chutzpah, I asked and was given permission.”

As part of the celebration of the old mission’s long life, the architecture sang again. The choir did three concerts: Mozart and Palestrina on Friday, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, composed in 1798, on Saturday; and Faure’s Requiem and other works Sunday.