Music Reviews : Tchaikovsky, Williams--All That Brass

For brass lovers, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center was the place to be Saturday night. Clarion, blooperless blares and toots resounded all evening as composer-conductor John Williams led the enthusiastic Glendale Symphony in a (mainly) Tchaikovsky/Williams potpourri.

Tchaikovsky’s 1883 “Coronation March” stirred the public as it warmed up embouchures. His Violin Concerto featured solicitous support from Williams for soloist Stuart Canin.

Canin’s competent, uneventful playing exhibited several pluses: an unfailingly good trill, and the creation of haunting echo effects when playing identical phrases back-to-back, through canny dynamic control.

Unfortunately, in the predominantly big moments of this big concerto, he lacked the requisite large, plush Romantic tone, tending to relinquish primacy in tutti passages, the bravura emerging small-scaled and undernourished.

After intermission, the brass held sway again, first with Williams’ ” Liberty Fanfare,” then in medleys of his film music.

Familiar fare (“Star Wars,” “E.T.” themes) partnered “The Witches of Eastwick” excerpts: “The Devil’s Dance,” reconstructed from various snippets, proved a minor, enjoyable tone poem. That it seemed composed by committee--Dukas, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Saint-Saens--detracted not a whit from its appeal.

The program wore on too long. A kitschy orchestral tribute to Judy Garland had the audience humming along, while, at the conductor’s instigation, it clapped in rhythm to Sousa and Willson quotes during Arlen’s “I Love a Parade.” It was that kind of night.