Styles Clash, But to Good Effect at Pasadena Symphony

An odd pairing in a strange program, Falla’s wondrous ballet score, “El Amor Brujo,” and Shostakovich’s pictorial Symphony No. 11 occupied the Pasadena Symphony’s January concert, played Saturday night in the Civic Auditorium.

Each of these works grabs its listeners in different ways, “Amor Brujo” with charm and subtlety, melodiousness and the constant threat of spiritualism, the mighty Eleventh with violence, mournfulness and catharsis. Yet the two pieces are not complementary, and their joint appearance is jolting at this performance led with authoritative impulses by music director Jorge Mester.

The veteran conductor accorded the 1957 symphony its due in sad reflection and balanced raucousness, keeping it on track with a followable continuity from its quiet beginnings through its massive, clangorous finale.

The orchestra responded with handsome and usually transparent playing, even at high-decibel levels. Only the opening movement sometimes failed to maintain the tension that should lead to the musical violence that immediately follows.

Nonetheless, at the conclusion, the performances was greeted with loud cheering from the audience.

“El Amor Brujo,” a work of utterly different sensibilities--the occult appears, but under the guise of jollity, not dead seriousness--makes its points with seductiveness and song, plus dances that tell more about the dramatic content of the action than any words might.

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All told, it is a genuinely happy and emotionally resonant piece, and its instrumental and vocal writing captivate the listener.

Here, Mester’s reading favored sculptured rather than impetuous tempos, clarity over thickness and the primacy of melody. The orchestral soloists, as in the Shostakovich, kept lightness foremost.

Mezzo-soprano Kimball Wheeler, a frequent guest with Mester and the orchestra over the years, substituted on one day’s notice for the flu-ridden scheduled soloist in the Falla suite. Wheeler performed nobly and imperturbably.