ROBUST EFFORT : SYMPHONY DOES RIGHT BY DVORAK

To the consternation of many San Diego Symphony patrons, music director David Atherton has applied the principles of nouvelle cuisine to the local orchestra’s programming. During his five-season tenure, he has slimmed down the number of traditional, high-calorie, Romantic symphonies and concertos, and has lightened the fare with chamber opera, all-Baroque programs, and a variety of works that use only select sections of the orchestra.

Thursday night at Symphony Hall, Atherton proved that on occasion, however, he is quite capable of serving up a hearty, meat-and-potatoes menu, but in the case of this all-Dvorak concert, roast and dumplings might be the more appropriate metaphor. For this final concert in the season’s Great Composer’s Series, Atherton pulled out all of the stops and, with his heart on his sleeve, indulged the composer’s sometimes cloying lyric muse.

This is not to suggest that the maestro showed any lack of conviction in his approach to Dvorak. His direction brimmed with enthused drive and genuine appreciation for the composer’s expansive scope. The concert-opening “Carnival” overture told the story in a nutshell: With the orchestra brandishing its most robust yet disciplined sound, Atherton tripped the work’s perky rhythms with deft and knowing precision.

In Dvorak’s violin concerto, the young American violinist Mark Kaplan gave an elegant, if overly serious, reading of the solo. Possessing a lithe and remarkably fluent technique, Kaplan sailed through the concerto’s technical challenges, pausing only to inflect the more introspective melodies with just a hint of sentiment. Although Kaplan’s upper range is uncommonly sweet in timbre, his overall sound was a bit light. He was not a sufficient match in volume for the full orchestra, but in the less dense textures, Atherton kept a just balance between soloist and orchestra.

In the “Symphony No. 7 in D Minor,” the sole work after intermission, the orchestra was the hero. It clearly embodied the composer’s simple majesty and pastoral pantheism.

Under Atherton’s well-planned pacing of the symphony, the strings played with solid, unforced brilliance, and the horns delivered their ever-dependable flourish. And the audience loved every note of it.

The concert will be repeated this evening at 8 o’clock in Symphony Hall.