Although Johannes Brahms is a stalwart member of today’s classical music galaxy, in his day he was by no means universally lauded, especially by the music critics. And his fellow composer and contemporary Peter Tchaikovsky wrote him off as a “giftless bastard” and a “self-inflated mediocrity.” Of course, there could have been some professional jealousy rather than objective analysis spurring those observations.

Brahms was intensely self-critical, destroying every composition he felt unworthy or uncertain about, so we have only a baker’s dozen of purely orchestral works from his hand. This weekend (Feb. 11-13), San Diego Symphony Music Director Jahja Ling offered Brahms’ “Double Concerto,” the Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102, his final purely orchestral opus, as the next installment of the orchestra’s Centennial Season overview of the powerhouse pieces of the symphonic canon.

Two aspects of Sunday’s performance stood out: cellist Eric Kim’s soaring, yet elegantly detailed approach to his solo throughout the concerto and Ling’s radiant account of the slow middle movement, one of the composer’s gems of lyrical counterpoint and ingenious orchestration.

From his first solo notes, Kim communicated a plush sonority that proved supple and inviting at every turn. His deft playing, notabIy his delectable, cleanly etched double stops in the finale, recalled the impact he made in his brief tenure as Principal Cello with the San Diego Symphony in the late 1980s, before he won the position at the Cincinnati Symphony. It was a more lucrative post and, at that time in San Diego’s rocky financial journey, a far more secure organization; nevertheless, his departure was a serious blow to the Symphony’s musical growth.

Violinist William Preucil is well-known to local audiences as the first chair of the former Cleveland String Quartet and the longtime Concertmaster of David Atherton’s Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra. That Preucil possesses a fleet technique is beyond question, but his performance as the other soloist in the “Double Concerto” proved disappointing, displaying neither Kim’s animated phrasing nor his broad range of colors. While Kim was ever buoyant, Preucil sounded passive, cleanly going through the motions but not putting his heart into the effort.

Ling balanced the Brahms with Franz Schubert’s “Mass in E-flat Major,” D. 950, like the “Double Concerto” a mature work that reveals the composer’s best hand. In this grand choral Mass—it calls for 5 vocal soloists, but their contribution is minor—the San Diego Master Chorale offered some of its finest singing in recent seasons. Ebullient and well-balanced, the singers enlivened Schubert’s colorful harmonies and projected sympathetic interpretations of the text.

Much of the choral movement, except for a few robust fugues, is chordal and quite text-driven, with the orchestra functioning in a supporting role. Chorale Music Director Gary McKercher’s excellent preparation was evident throughout the Mass, especially the bright flourishes of the “Gloria in excelsis” and the powerful fugue in the Credo “Et iterum venturis.”

Among the soloists, tenor Bruce Sledge and soprano Dominique Labelle made the strongest impressions, particularly in the solo ensemble “Et incarnatus est,” where his dulcet, rounded phrases supporterd her shining, well-focused lines. Tenor Robert Breault added some raw bleating to this ensemble, and, fortunately, we did not hear much of him after that. The solo quartet (sans Breault) made a strong ensemble impression in their “Benedictus,” although neither mezzo Jamie Barton nor bass Evan Hughes sang enough by themselves to characterize their individual voices.

Schubert’s “Mass in E-flat Minor” does not pretend to express the drama of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” which was written some six years earlier, but it does offer a mellifluous setting of the Ordinary enlivened by an array of harmonic color and drive.

PRESS HERE for PROGRAM & BIOS