PUTTING A GLOSS ON GLENDALE SYMPHONY

When guest conductor Anshel Brusilow steps onto the podium of the Glendale Symphony this weekend, he will face an orchestra in a quandary: It is searching for an identity at the same time as it’s seeking a permanent music director.

Is it a pops band--as it had been so often under the late Carmen Dragon? Or a serious symphonic ensemble--as was the case during the recent one-year tenure of Dragon’s successor, Daniel Lewis?

“I’m not sure what they (the orchestra board members) have in mind,” Brusilow notes, “though they seem to be leaning toward the pop field.”

As far as he is concerned, either musical extreme is just fine.

“I love to do pop,” says the affable 57-year-old conductor, who will lead the first of two Glendale dates at the Music Center tonight. “I’m not a serious pops conductor like Henry Mancini or John Williams (both are guest conductor/music director candidates with the Glendale this season), but I’ve done my share.

“When I was music director in Dallas (1969-73 with the Dallas Symphony), I had a pop thing called ‘Dallasound’ that got me in trouble with some people--and I will say no more.”

Since leaving the Dallas post a dozen years ago, Brusilow has been “guest conducting and hibernating.” He just returned from London where he has begun a seven-year project of recording, with the English Chamber Orchestra, all of Mozart’s symphonies and piano concertos (with pianist Tedd Joselson, soloist in Barber’s Concerto at the Feb. 22 Music Center concert).

Despite such “serious” projects, the conductor retains a fondness for the lighter stuff.

However, don’t expect a Glendale version of “Dallasound” at the Pavilion. The program will consist of decidedly non -pops music by William Schuman, Mendelssohn and Sibelius. And on Feb. 22? More of the same: Barber, Richard Strauss, Debussy and Berlioz.

In a breezy interview from his vacation lodge in Vail, Colo. (“Imagine, skiing at my age!”), Brusilow confesses a preference for such “classical” repertory.

“I want to put a gloss on the Glendale as a symphony orchestra,” he said. “With the players they have--and some of them are among the best in the country--they ought to be able to play it (serious repertory) well, and that would result in a different kind of attention for them.”

Discussing tonight’s Glendale agenda, Brusilow notes, “I built the first program around Erick (violinist Erick Friedman),” he begins. “Erick wanted to do the Brahms Concerto or the Tchaikovsky. I said, ‘No, no. Everyone plays them these days.’

“I suggested the Mendelssohn. Sure, it’s a familiar piece--almost a pops piece--but when’s the last time Los Angeles heard it?” Brusilow let out a long, low groan when informed of Isaac Stern’s performance of the concerto at the Pavilion earlier this week. “He would do the Mendelssohn,” the conductor replies with a hurt-puppy tone to his voice. “How do I know?”

Slowly recovering from the blow, Brusilow continues with the repertory: “The really big work, of course, is the Sibelius (Symphony No. 2).” He pauses a moment, then jokes, “OK, let me ask you--who’s doing it this month?”