CHORALE BEGINS ITS GOODBYE TO MAESTRO WITH FLAIR.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspndent

The Los Angeles Master Chorale may lack the L.A. Opera's financial resources, but it can teach its richer cousin something about putting on a show. On Saturday night, the Chorale mounted what was, in effect, the first part of a two-concert farewell to its longtime maestro, Paul Salamunovich.

The event's vague and pretentious official title was the ``Golden Age of Choral Music,'' but ``Paul Salamunovich's Trip Down Memory Lane'' would have been a better name. In fact, there was nearly as much talk as singing. That didn't matter, though, as the reminiscences were touching, funny, informative and endearing. It also didn't hurt that in addition to the excellent Chorale, Salamunovich had a few ringers in the wings: Marilyn Horne, Marni Nixon and Harve Presnell.

If, for some reason, you don't know these names, look them up, for these three artists are, in their disparate ways, among our more gifted entertainers. They also happen to be lifelong friends of Salamunovich and, like him, former members of an ensemble that would later become the Master Chorale.

But the evening was far more than a sentimental journey. In addition to the Chorale's performances of some signature, often liturgical numbers (all beautifully executed), the guest artists performed a bevy of popular tunes accompanied by the chorus.

Nixon offered a wonderfully warm version of Rodgers and Hart's ``My Romance,'' which she followed with the evening's only solo number, Jerome Kern's ``Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.'' Salamunovich had cut the tune from the program, but when his old friend expressed a desire to sing it anyway, he allowed her. It's a measure of Nixon's talent that as she sang it, every female number of the chorus stared at her adoringly. Later, Nixon and the Chorale teamed for a sensual new arrangement of Ravel's ``Vocalise Etude in the Form of a Habanera.''

The versatile Harve Presnell was the evening's biggest clown. Yet his singing was no joke. In ``They Call the Wind Maria'' (his calling card) and ``It Ain't Necessarily So,'' the witty and charismatic Presnell sang with the vigor of a man a third his age. There must be a portrait in his attic looking downright grotesque by now.

Marilyn Horne sounding wonderful was no surprise. She has managed her vocal resources brilliantly for decades. She sang three numbers touchingly, ``He's Gone Away,'' ``Shenandoah'' (her favorite folk song, she said) and ``Sometime I Feel Like a Motherless Child.''

For an encore, Salamunovich asked Horne, Presnell and Nixon to join the Chorale in a reprise of ``Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,'' a setting of Emma Lazarus' famous words. But rather than just stand alongside their successors, Horne, Presnell and Nixon stepped into the chorus. It was a lovely, unscripted moment, as true and moving as everything else at this concert.

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Photo: Vocalist Marilyn Horne performed at Saturday's Master Chorale tribute concert.