MUSIC REVIEWS : PASADENA SYMPHONY

With more daring than judgment, the Pasadena Symphony, conducted by Jorge Mester, revived Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 in Pasadena Civic Auditorium Saturday night. Revived may not be quite the word; the orchestra had not played the work before.

Not without reason is the Eighth one of the most neglected of Shostakovich’s 15 symphonies. It was written while Leningrad was under siege in 1943, and the composer intended it to “express the emotional experience of the people, to reflect the terrible tragedy of the war.”

Its proportions are behemothian. There are five movements, three of them connected without pause, and Mester’s total performing time was 68 minutes, thus placing the work in the long-winded category of the most inflated indulgences of Mahler and Bruckner.

The composer must have suffered from some relentless obsession to put down so many notes so aimlessly. There is hardly a new or fresh turn of phrase in the entire work. Near-quotations or close replicas of material from the earlier symphonies recur frequently.

All of Shostakovich’s favorite effects are rehearsed endlessly, until drained of meaning. The facility and the mastery of instrumentation are unfaltering, but how many piccolo solos and rhetorical recitatives can be tolerated in one piece?

As to the performance, Mester and his musicians sacrificed themselves with unstinting devotion. Mester had proved his affinity for Shostakovich in his memorable reading of the Tenth last season. He did what he could with the Eighth, and the orchestra played with alertness and affection, but it was too much for human salvation.

The program opened with a timid and understated account of Mozart’s Serenade No. 12, in C minor, K. 388, for a double quartet of wind instruments. Presumably the players were members of the Pasadena Symphony.