DANCE AND MUSIC REVIEWS : FINALE FOR LEWIS

Never the most consistent of orchestral ensembles, the Glendale Symphony during the last season has displayed new discipline, alertness and cohesion under its music adviser and conductor, Daniel Lewis.

Now Lewis, after this single season, is leaving Glendale; he led his final concert Saturday night in the Pavilion of the Music Center. He left in a glow, if not a blaze, of glory.

The distance the orchestra has come was heard again in a reading of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony that approached the expansiveness of the composer’s vision and offered warm and unfaltering playing from the reorganized string choir, splendid solo lines in the woodwinds and mellow brass authority.

In Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan,” Lewis elicited similar achievements from the cooperative instrumental ensemble; here he built a compelling overview of a piece that some let ramble. At the end, he allowed a deserved extra bow to oboist Tom Boyd. The concert began with an unusual but appropriate overture, Charles Ives’ “Declaration Day,” which the Glendale audience greeted with particularly restrained applause.