GLENDALE SYMPHONY’S BASIC FARE

Daniel Lewis offered a menu of meat and potatoes at the concert by the Glendale Symphony in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday. The fare leaned unashamedly toward the familiar and the lyrical--music easily digested, if you will.

Brahms’ Violin Concerto stood as the centerpiece, with the tune-heavy “Rosamunde” Overture by Schubert and Symphony in C by Bizet on either side. Though the Brahms was far and away the most substantial work, it did not emerge as the most successful.

Stuart Canin, the orchestra’s concertmaster, proved an able spokesman for the concerto’s virtuoso demands (except for occasional pitch problems during some of those killer passages in the opening movement) and an artful poet in the Adagio’s intense probings.

Why, then, did the performance fail to catch fire? As polished a reading as Canin gave, his thinnish tone seemed out of sync with the full-bodied sound Lewis was drawing from his players. This contrast was no more apparent than in the opening Allegro--a movement built on give and take between soloist and orchestra. Canin seemed unable to dominate the proceedings, as the solo voice must.

Brisk tempos proved advantageous to the outer works on the agenda. Bizet’s early Symphony can, in the proper hands, serve as a virtuoso vehicle for an orchestra, and Lewis made the most of the challenge in the three sizzling Allegros. And his no-nonsense approach saved the Adagio from wallowing in its own maudlin melodies.

In the opening “Rosamunde” overture, Schubert was well served in a crisp performance.