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La Jolla Symphony premieres wonderful new work by composer Alex Stephenson

Some music seems to exist outside of human intervention. A composer’s name may be on a piece, but the music appears to have passed through them as pure inspiration.

The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’ Saturday concert at Mandeville Auditorium on the UC San Diego campus bore the title “Music Of The Spheres,” suggesting that some music operates independent of mortals, as if a natural phenomenon.

The program, conducted by Michael Gerdes, consisted of Brahms’ “German Requiem,” the premiere of “An Elemental Music” by UCSD doctoral student Alex Stephenson, and Missy Mazzoli’s “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres).”

Mazzoli describes her piece as “music in the shape of a solar system, a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit.” If you listen for that, it’s a handy way to process “Sinfonia.” Of course it’s a compositional sleight of hand on her part, since she created the loops and decided how our attention should be directed.

But yes, with her direction — or is it “misdirection?” — “Sinfonia” does sound like musical orbits coming into focus and drifting away.

Her harmonic language is largely consonant, owing something to John Adams perhaps in its drawing at liberty on all seven notes of the major scale, spotlighting some pitches in a rhythmically free idiom. It came to a modest apex and then receded, as if we were on a satellite leaving the planetary system.

“An Elemental Music” has the stamp of its creator in every measure. If “Sinfonia” seemed all inspiration, Stephenson’s piece was the opposite, revealing careful construction.

Ever since encountering Stephenson’s “Cantus” three years ago, I’ve followed his output. No matter his harmonic language, his musical gestures are patently clear, and in “An Elemental Music,” he has reached a new pinnacle of simplicity and directness. It struck me as very Stravinskian, from its opening C dominant seventh chord to its juxtapositions of different materials.

Stravinsky is not a compositional role model I associate with UCSD students, which makes Stephenson’s language more striking. There’s even an earlier composer’s music embedded in “An Elemental Music”: the “Cold Song” from Purcell’s “King Arthur.”

Other LJSC commissions tend towards the experimental or modern, but “An Elemental Music” could be easily programmed by any American orchestra and it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Not only that — it’s significantly better than most works by young American composers that I hear orchestras program.

Both Stephenson and Mazzoli were given exceptionally fine performances by Gerdes and the La Jolla Symphony, with special praise due to the clarinet, flute, and bassoon sections in “An Elemental Music.”

With the exception of its fugal sections, Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem” (A German Requiem) may sound divinely inspired, but it was artfully written using clever manipulations of motives.

Interpretations of it can suffer from too much solemnity. Yes, there’s seriousness built into the piece due to its Biblical texts, but that doesn’t mean it should plod along. The best performances never lose sight of the overall pacing and bring out the work’s details as well.

The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus would have benefited from more clarity. Their performance was too turgid. The Chorus’ balance between men’s and women’s voices was better than the last time I heard them, but their ensemble work could use improvement.

The brightest moments happened during the soloists’ arias. Philip Lima’s capacious baritone probed his texts musing about the frailty of life or the transformation to the afterlife. Soprano Tasha Koontz’s supple voice filled the hall with reassurances of comfort to come.

Hertzog is a freelance writer.