MUSIC REVIEW : CHAMBER SYMPHONY OPENS ITS FIFTH SEASON

The American Chamber Symphony’s Sunday evening concert that marked the opening of its fifth season disappointed in a number of ways.

Happily, though, few of them had a direct effect on the music at hand.

The centerpiece of the program at Gindi Auditorium of the University of Judaism was to be the first performance anywhere of a Viola Concerto by Krzysztof Penderecki, with the composer discussing the work before the concert. But Penderecki, who had just that afternoon conducted a third performance in three days of his monumental “St. Luke” Passion at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and was reported to have a plane to catch Monday morning, did not appear.

Less understandably, the putative world premiere shrank to a North American premiere. According to Martin Workman, who hosted a promotion with music director Nelson Nirenberg in place of the talk by Penderecki, the concerto had been commissioned by a Venezuelan organization and was previously performed in that country--and later in Leningrad.

The work itself did not disappoint, though it is not as fiercely dramatic or compelling as the Passion. Cast in a single, episodic movement lasting 18 minutes on Sunday, the concerto begins with a plaintive, hesitant solo statement. This is then developed and varied by the soloist and accompanying orchestra of strings and percussion.

Although there are flashes of real power from the orchestra and the soloist must negotiate bravura obstacles, the overall effect is one of fitful neurosis. The various episodes are sharply delineated, ranging from Shostakovian brooding to patches of aleatoric jitters. The final fade-out suggests quiescence rather than resolution.

Milton Thomas tackled the daunting solo assignment with confident, fleet fingers and rich sounds. He did not wring the last ounce of expressive Angst from the music, and his restraint contributed a slightly mannered feeling.

Nirenberg and his musicians urged the piece forcefully, although some of the pizzicato punctuation was not as tight as probably desired. The American Chamber Symphony has become an excellent band, and exerts a strong presence in the acoustically lively Gindi Auditorium.

The orchestra’s manifold virtues were readily audible in Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” Overture and Beethoven’s First Symphony. Powerful, cohesive playing from the strings, and bright, attractive solo winds distinguish the group and gave these repertory standards vigorous charm.

Nirenberg did not probe much, seemingly content with surface gloss. He has a prancing podium manner that elicits energy and verve while ignoring formal and interpretive depths, particularly here in the opening movements of the Beethoven work.