MUSIC : Long Beach Symphony

By its own standards, the Long Beach Symphony’s first concert of 1988, at the Terrace Theater, turned out to be a rather disappointing affair.

Look at the agenda. Conductor Murry Sidlin time and again has shown a gift for felicitous programing and, in a season in which an important or infrequently heard 20th-Century work appears on every other concert, it is odd that he choose for Saturday a Schumann program. Schumann’s symphonic music, for all its charm, is best taken in medium-size doses.

Then look at the size of Saturday’s orchestra. For financial or other reasons, the ensemble fielded only half of its string roster, and the modest wind section demanded by the music often overpowered the strings.

Balances aside, however, the ensemble gave a highly polished account of the Fourth Symphony. Sidlin executed tempo changes smoothly, brought out essential details and gave shape and meaning to each melodic line. But in spite of some very sensitive playing (particularly by the oboe and cello soloists), this reading came off as too careful and rather impersonal. Until the last movement, that is when the players’ enthusiasm became at once evident, and where the music really exhibited a feeling of momentum.

What should have been the high point turned out to be further cause--everything is relative here--for disappointment. Cellist John Walz, who has many times proved himself an exemplary musician and a welcome soloist, performed the A minor cello concerto. He produced his usual warm, pure tone, but had difficulty projecting from the giant stage. Moreover, his intonation was not up to his own, high standards, and he dispatched fast, technical passages with inarticulate glibness. The orchestra, on the whole, provided reliable support.

Some imprecise entrances and muddy fiddling notwithstanding, Sidlin and company delivered a stylish and evocative reading of the “Manfred” Overture and Incidental Music, enhanced in no small way by Joan Elardo’s plaintive and poetic English horn playing.