MUSIC REVIEWS : Pennario: Inspired He’s Not

From a numbers standpoint, booking a well-known soloist to play a familiar concerto is a sure bet. That certainly proved true Saturday evening at Santa Ana High School, where pianist Leonard Pennario and the South Coast Symphony performed for a large, enthusiastic audience.

Nothing, however, can guarantee inspired music-making, and Pennario’s reading of Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto was anything but inspired. True, it was full of power and drive and flash and splash. But glitter cannot substitute for expression and phrasing, nor can it excuse a soloist from making dynamic contrasts and executing a degree of nuance.

Pennario didn’t make conductor John Larry Granger’s job any easier. The soloist’s dynamics ranged from loud to louder and his tempos varied unpredictably.

Granger, for his part, did yeoman’s duty in preventing any rhythmic disasters, though balance problems could not be overcome. Some serious intonation problems surfaced in the woodwind section, but the orchestra, on the whole, played with great sensitivity.

Poor intonation also plagued the ensemble’s rather anemic reading of the Prelude to Moussorgsky’s “Khovantchina,” which opened the program.

Following intermission, things improved dramatically. With balance and intonation ills all but cured, the orchestra gave a vivid and moving account of excerpts from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Superb solo work, finely honed phrases and striking contrasts helped make this a fine, if not entirely note-perfect performance. Most significantly, Granger succeeded in capturing the emotional essence of the work. No one would doubt, after hearing this performance, that “Romeo and Juliet” is a love story, and a tragic one.

Pennario offered two encores--Scriabin’s “Nocturne for the Left Hand” and “The Banjo” by Gottschalk.