MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : Morton Gould Conducts Glendale Symphony

Apparently, nothing’s up to date at the Glendale Symphony.

The 64-year old, former community orchestra, for more than the past two decades one of the professional occupants of the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, still plays like a crack virtuoso ensemble. Under the direction of guest conductor Morton Gould Saturday night, the orchestra again demonstrated its skill.

But in a format from the 1940s. Apparently, whoever is planning the orchestra’s concerts these days thinks it is appropriate:

--To open its program with a self-serving speech given by an orchestral official.

--To parade 26 young women, dressed in prom gowns, all members of the organization’s Preludes ushers group, before the assembled crowd.

--To devote 1 program pages to a list of donors and orchestra sponsors, but not even part of a page to the ensemble’s personnel roster.

--To applaud loudly between all movements of works on the program. Such ill-timed applause seems to have been banished at the Orange County Performing Arts Center; it was embarrassing to find it thriving in the big city.

What was depressing in the musical presentations at this event had nothing to do with Gould’s straightforward conducting of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony or his own, attractive, if amusingly dated, “Latin American Symphonette” (1941).

What was hard to admire was the inclusion on the program of Gould’s 12-year old patriotic medley, “American Ballads”--a perfectly OK piece of music suitable for use at school pageants or on an inspirational attraction at Disneyland. What one would have preferred at this overture-spot on the composer/conductor’s agenda was some recent artifact of his oeuvre ; not everything he has written in the past, say, 30 years is as slick and forgettable as “American Ballads.”

All that said, one could have few complaints about the quality of the performances. Gould, a solid compositional craftsman, led his dancey “Symphonette” gracefully and the Dvorak work with an ear to its longer spans and musical integrity. There was brilliance and communicativeness in the solo work from the unlisted principals, and strong ensemble values from each separate orchestral choir. As the core of this organization’s music-making, all these players deserve more credit than they were receiving.