MUSIC REVIEWS : Youth Symphony Opens 23rd Season

American Youth Symphony’s 23rd season got under way at Royce Hall, UCLA, Sunday evening. As in previous years, a promising young soloist will be featured at each of the orchestra’s concerts.

This time the soloist was Juilliard student Sara Wolfensohn, who played Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. The Australian-born pianist brought clarity, precision and elegance to her performance and demonstrated flawless technical command of the score. She played with a light, Mozartean style and sounded particularly effective in the softer passages, where conductor Mehli Mehta kept his forces appropriately delicate.

Wolfensohn’s dynamic spectrum appears to be limited; at several times one wished for more volume and more energy. Her delivery, moreover, seemed too predictable, too risk-free. The Rondo, for instance, had a great deal of charm but needed more jauntiness; the Largo lacked rhythmic freedom. Still, Wolfensohn, who is currently studying with Bella Davidovich and is barely older than this orchestra, has time to develop. She is worth watching.

A couple of seasons ago Mehta built each program around famous ninth symphonies, and this year third symphonies will serve as the common denominator. Saint-Saens’ C-minor Symphony (“Organ”) proved to be an apt choice for a training orchestra.

The young string players delivered the extended legato lines of the second movement with intensity and a ceaseless feeling of direction. The brass section rendered the fortissimos of the Finale with power and point, and woodwind soloists proved musically sophisticated and technically secure. UCLA faculty member Thomas Harmon played the prominent organ part with authority.