MUSIC REVIEW : PIANIST ENGERER WITH TOULOUSE ORCHESTRA

Wearing a black gown topped with a provocative pink-and-white-print bodice, pianist Brigitte Engerer, arrived on the Royce Hall stage Wednesday looking stunning.

She played stunningly, too, though her concerto was all-too-familiar. As soloist with the touring Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Engerer brought to Saint-Saens’ G-minor Concerto all the strength, evenness of technique and machine-gun rapidity it needs.

The melting lyricism, Gallic charms and Romantic quietude of the piece, the French pianist mostly glossed over. Even so, Engerer certainly rode the aggressive qualities of the old war horse to glory--thunderously.

In this tight and expert performance, conductor Michel Plasson and the Toulouse ensemble seconded Engerer spiritedly.

Now on its third U.S. tour, the French orchestra brought to the UCLA facility a predictable program of 19th-Century French works: Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune ,” the Saint-Saens concerto and Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D Minor.

With an accomplished body of upper strings and strong musical skills apparent throughout the ensemble, the orchestra may not rival in virtuosity or polish its more famous European counterparts; in this program, however, it shone.

The single masterpiece on the agenda, Debussy’s Prelude received a taut and irresistibly linear reading, one in which Plasson projected continuity and voluptuousness.

The Franck Symphony, now 96 years old and virtually forgotten in our concert halls, deserves at least as understated, careful, loving, ongoing and clarified a performance as Plasson and his Toulousians brought to it.