Maestro Carl St.Clair bounded onto the stage at the Great Park Live amphitheater, bowed to the audience and lifted his arms in an “up-beat,” launching the Pacific Symphony into the “Downey Overture” by Spanish composer Oscar Navarro.
The rhythmically charged piece set up for a night of emotional and thrilling music that swept over the Summerfest audience there Friday night, Aug. 8, to enjoy St.Clair leading the 82-member Pacific Symphony for the last time as its music director, ending a 35-year tenure with the organization that he led to becoming one of the nation’s first-rate orchestras. Alexander Shelley has been named the symphony’s new director, just its third, sharing the conductor duties this last season.
The concert, “Beethoven’s Emperor and Pictures at an Exhibition,” included well-loved masterworks and a new piece. After Narraro’s piece, pianist Michelle Cann joined the orchestra for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “The Emperor,” bringing the audience to its feet in a standing ovation after her exhilarating performance. A final piece, Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” emotionally moved many and served as a fitting end to St.Clair’s role as the orchestra’s maestro.
In June, St.Clair directed the symphony’s Classical Season for the last time inside at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. But this performance under the stars was more intimate, more personal; St.Clair wandered among tables before the concert, talking with audience members.
It was not his “last bow,” though, St.Clair said. In November, he takes on his new title as music director, laureate for life with the symphony and with that has a series of performances planned.
Minutes before taking the stage, St.Clair reflected on the moment.
“Joy, joy, joy, just nothing but joy and peace,” he said. “I’m just so happy the way the transition is moving. Alexander is going to be a great music director. I’ve enjoyed 35 years; it’s blessed my life being the music director of this orchestra. I feel at peace and very fortunate to have led these incredible musicians for three and a half decades.”
What made him so comfortable with leaving the orchestra that has been intimately intertwined with his own life and that of his family’s, St.Clair said, is the fact that he will remain in the laureate position.
“If that had a different ending, it would feel completely different,” he said. “But, right now, it feels very natural.”
St.Clair and the symphony board began planning the process of succession to ensure that it would be “smooth, cordial, cooperative, collegial and collaborative” about three years ago when the maestro announced his plans to retire as music director.
“Because of the way it’s been handled,” St.Clair said of the transition process. “It’s been done in a very good way so that the musicians haven’t missed one step. That was always my hope and plan.”
He said he also hopes the foundation he set over his three-plus decades will help lead the orchestra into its next chapter and toward its 50th anniversary.
“When you only have two executive directors and two music directors in 46 years, there’s a certain philosophical path that’s been sort of spotlighted,” he said. “I hope that some of the things we’ve created will continue, but there will be new things and different things, but that’s part of life.”
St.Clair said, in his new role, he will be “sort of like the grandparent that gets to hug the Pacific Symphony now and then and give it back to Alexander.”
Since St.Clair came aboard, the now internationally recognized orchestra has gone from a $2 million undertaking to a $24 million operation that rehearses and plays its concerts at the more than 1,700-seat Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The symphony has played Carnegie Hall, toured in China and Europe and received recognition with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ Award for Adventurous Programming and a nod from the League of American Orchestras as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras.
“Our real focus has always been on becoming and being, you know, the orchestra of Orange County,” St.Clair added, which meant leaving the confines of the concert hall and heading out into the community with programs such as Symphony in the Cities and Class Act, where the musicians visit local schools.
Among those in the Great Park audience Friday night were Tom and Teri Hartley, of Foothill Ranch. While the couple has season tickets at the Segerstrom Hall, the outdoor venue gives a more intimate relationship with the music and with St.Clair, they said.
It was also important, they said, to be part of St.Clair’s long goodbye from his present post.
“He’s been an enjoyable part of our lives for a long time,” Tom Hartley said.
Among his more memorable times, he said, was a Summerfest concert years ago, when St.Clair conducted the Barber Concerto for the Strings.
“It starts quiet, swells, and then in the end it gets super quiet,” he said. “I looked around at all the children and the adults, and you could hear a pin drop. I’ve remembered that for many years. It brought everyone to this similar awestruck enjoyment of music.”
Marilyn Liu also wasn’t going to miss St.Clair’s last Summerfest performance.
“I want to honor him,” the Villa Park resident said. “He made the symphony into a family. He makes everyone feel so welcome. He never feels rushed. He takes his time.”
And, that’s also what concertgoers Kimberly Rimmel, of Irvine, and Lisa Dallendorfer, of Tustin, felt as they watched the maestro greet people in the audience before the performance began.
“He was walking up to every table and making these connections,” Dallendorfer said. “It’s a demonstration of his sincerity, commitment, and joy. There’s no doubt he’s a beloved part of the community.”
And, though Friday was a sort of finale for St.Clair, he hardly has time to rest.
Later this month, he heads to a four-day engagement with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan, and then to Thailand, where, during a week of concerts with its philharmonic, he will be officially named music director.
After that, he tours China with the group.
St.Clair said that, as the Pacific Symphony’s laureate, he will be as active “as allowed.”
“I’m not just riding off into the sunset never to be seen again,” he said, adding that he hopes to conduct well into his 90s, and be even better than when he was 25.
“At that age, you are on a road well and oft traveled,” he said. “That meaningful experience comes forth with each word and in every gesture. All orchestras recognize this immediately.”
