MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : PASADENA SYMPHONY’S SEASON FINALE

Not one but two soloists joined the Pasadena Symphony and its music director, Jorge Mester, at the closing concert of the season Saturday in Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the young East Coast-based musician was the soloist in the Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn. And, in Saint-Saens’ Third (Organ) Symphony, John West assumed duties at the massive auditorium house organ.

Mester, however, remained the catalyst and central figure in this program, which began with Leonardo Balada’s seven-minute “Homage to Sarasate” and ended with the Saint-Saens work. Clearly in charge and firmly in control, the conductor brought contagious affection and a genuine sense of importance to each work.

In Balada’s complex and witty Sarasate tribute, Mester achieved, with aggressive help from his instrumentalists, the kind of transparency which showed this bright overture to its best aural advantage.

In the concerto, wherein Salerno-Sonnenberg performed with imperturbable virtuosity and an unspoiled directness of expression, he supported his soloist deftly.

And in Saint-Saens’ lovable ice-cream cake of a symphony, Mester left the massive structure alone, to float free and make its own sweet statement. Seldom has the old confection seemed so airy, innocent and brief.