‘Earth’ Yields Sweetness in Santa Monica

Conditions may be modest for the Santa Monica Symphony, but it has history--this being its 55th season--and noble intentions on its side.

On Sunday night, a healthy-sized and appreciative audience, in come-as-you-are attire, showed up for a free concert in the somewhat cavernous, concrete-floored Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, sat in folding chairs and got a respectably played dose of Mozart and Mahler, worth much more than the price of admission.

What the orchestra lacks in formalities and, sometimes, in polish, it makes up for in cultural affirmation and solid music-making. Conductor Allen Robert Gross, in his ninth season, coaxed a fine ensemble sound from the orchestra, which is largely made up of volunteers. They opened with Mozart’s teenage wonder, Symphony No. 25, the “little G minor,” capturing the intensities and pleasantries etched into the score. The string section produced a seamless sound, with a few wrinkles elsewhere in the orchestral fabric.

The centerpiece, and guests of honor, came after intermission. Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” (The Song of the Earth), the hourlong, symphonically pitched song cycle written a few years before the composer’s death in 1911, epitomizes his historical role, tilting toward modernism but windblown by post-romantic impulses. It’s a piece full of yearning, of pining for lost youth and beauty, and forging into the dark mist ahead, working toward a half-earnest resolution. Here, tenor Jonathan Mack and mezzo-soprano Adrien Raynier sang the alternating movements, with controlled brio. Mack, in particular, exerted his forceful yet subtle and nuanced approach and reminded us that his is a voice worth hearing.

Earthiness comes in many forms in the piece, from shards of simple, folk-like tunes, from the primordial sludge of the low brass opening the finale, or from the sudden, fleeting appearance of mandolin notes near the end. Emotionally too it’s an alternately sweet and haunted work, the sentimental chiaroscuro of which was valiantly portrayed by Gross and his charges.