MUSIC REVIEW : A JUMBLE OF OLD, NEW BY KEITH CLARK

Monday night at the South Coast Repertory Theatrein Costa Mesa, Keith Clark and members of his Orange County Pacific Symphony offered a jumbled program of three recent works divergent in quality and sandwiched between two staples of the Baroque.

Featured was one of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (“Spring”) and one of Bach’s “Brandenburg” concertos (No. 2).

Then there was an odd, scrunched-together mix of three recent pieces of divergent quality--Steve Reich’s tasty “Eight Lines,” some excerpts from Lloyd Rodgers’ charming score to the “Little Prince” ballet, premiered earlier this year by Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, and the first performance of “Epiphanies,” a commissioned work by Southern Californian Mark McGurty.

The McGurty piece, rambling on in dead-serious fashion for 22 long minutes, was overstuffed with familiar new-music effects: menacing dissonances, slithering glissandos, piercing harmonics and the occasional echoed toots from flute and trombone, plus one novelty--a single outburst from a giant slide guitar called “The Beam.” The young composer received polite, scattered applause.

More easily digested were Reich’s “Eight Lines” and Rodgers’ ballet pieces. The ballet pieces proved innocuous in their use of pleasantly tuneful ostinatos and colorful scoring (including guitar, vibraphone and harpsichord). “Eight Lines” displayed Reich’s masterful way of getting the maximum out of the minimum. In 20 minutes of continual doodling from 11 hard-working players, hardly a note seemed superfluous.

The ever-enthusiastic Clark led the various ensembles in sympathetic, moderately well-oiled readings. The same, alas, cannot be said of the Baroque offerings.

Eschewing the commonly accepted practice of doubling or tripling the strings, Clark emphasized Baroque intimacy and transparency by utilizing one player per part. That was nice. Unfortunately, this meant that individual weaknesses could not be hidden. Raggedness and an inescapable sluggishness permeated the readings.

Violinist Kimiyo Takeya brought a scratchy sound to her solo duties in the Vivaldi. In the Bach, the solo voices were dominated, as expected, by James Thatcher, who, in another nod toward “authentic” performance practice, played the hornlike Baroque trumpet. Despite the more muted sound of the instrument, Thatcher’s contributions stuck out uncomfortably.

The performers had to share the stage with the Christmas setting for the play “Jitters,” which opened Tuesday night at the Mainstage.