MUSIC, PERFORMANCE ART REVIEWS : SIDLIN CONDUCTS

Amid the nationwide flurry of cancellations and bankruptcies that have marked various symphonic seasons so far, it was good to hear the formerly faltering Long Beach Symphony sound as fit as it did Thursday evening. Music director Murry Sidlin’s program provided opportunities for broad-shouldered playing throughout the evening.

The orchestra has always made a strong presence in the Terrace Theater. William Schuman’s “New England Triptych” displayed warmth and unity in all sections of the group.

Sidlin’s tendency to revel in the sounds of the moment, while neglecting broader connections, serves his orchestra better than it does the music. That was not an issue in Schuman’s straightforward exercise, but it became important in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony.

The long Largo sounded emotionally inert and self-indulgently obscure, while the Finale ran its rhythmically obsessive course without distinction. The orchestra responded cooperatively.

The results of the evening’s solo effort were similarly ambivalent. Alec Chien revealed fleet, accurate fingers in the finesse portions of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, but proved far from note perfect in the more athletic passages.

The Juilliard-trained, Hong Kong native clearly found the middle movement the most congenial. He produced generously spirited, freely singing playing. Elsewhere, nervous energy frequently substituted for passion, and his tone tended toward stridency.

Sidlin appeared to push the Finale more than Chien desired, but otherwise the Romantic rhetoric was richly served by the orchestra.