MUSIC REVIEWS : Symphony Progresses--in Fits and Spurts

Ambition can be a fine thing, in moderate doses. Saturday the South Coast Symphony tackled a difficult, varied program on what seemed to be an off night. The inconsistent results, however, suggested that the orchestra is developing in the right direction in the fourth year of John Larry Granger’s tenure as music director.

Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony capped the evening at Orange Coast College. Working from memory, Granger put an emphasis on heavy accents and forward drive. He ignored the repeat of the exposition in the first movement, generally slighting both architectural illumination and introspection in favor of pushing the piece sturdily along.

His orchestra responded with willing spirit and raucous power in a largely earthbound performance. Its best moments came in a sharply defined fugue in the march, and a buoyant, pointed finale.

The program began with the Phantasy for String Orchestra by Harriet Payne, a violinist in the orchestra. Dating back to 1961 in this form, it is a conservative, attractive essay in part-writing and motivic development.

It is also more demanding than Granger and his charges seem to have anticipated, from the under-rehearsed character of the playing. Cellos and basses often argued tempo and rhythm with each other and Granger, and the first violins as a section held only approximate ideas about pitch in the upper positions.

Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” was the solo vehicle of this concert, with CalArts alum Jack Sanders the protagonist. The endearing, enduringly popular guitar concerto proved another surprisingly tricky work to all concerned.

Sanders was technically overmatched at many points, forced to drop or miss notes simply to keep up. He shaped the solo lines of the much-abused adagio poignantly, elsewhere substituting caution for the requisite virtuoso insouciance.

Except in the adagio, Granger enforced square, uncompromising tempos and rhythms. And though Sanders was modestly amplified, much of his passage work was buried in thick accompaniments from the full string sections.