Kord Won’t Offer Comparisons, Just Praise for Pacific Symphony

His profile lean and charismatic, his hair unruly, his expression intense, Kazimierz Kord walks briskly through the inanimate elegance of a posh hotel lobby in Costa Mesa--a striking contrast to his surroundings.

When the Polish conductor talks about music, seated a few minutes later in a quiet corner of that lobby, the context seems more appropriate.

The subject is the different orchestras he conducts, both in Europe and in this country.

“I don’t think it serves any purpose to make comparisons between musical organizations,” he says. “We are talking about art, not sports. The question should never be: Who won?”

Kord has been asked about the pit orchestra at the San Francisco Opera, a company with which he has been affiliated for 15 years. But he extends his comments to the U.S. orchestras where he is a guest conductor--the Pacific Symphony, for instance, which he leads tonight and Friday in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“What is most important,” he says, “is how willing are the players to work? How much do they love playing? Are they really interested in playing better today than yesterday?

“Every orchestra can make improvements--when one conducts the Chicago Symphony, even, there is still work to be done. What is crucial is the desire of the players to make the effort. That’s all I ask. Then, I am happy.”

Kord is full of praise for the Southern California instrumentalists who make up the Pacific Symphony, the orchestra founded by Keith Clark 10 years ago that is now ending its second full season at the center in Costa Mesa.

“When I was here last year, James Medvitz (general manager of the orchestra) invited me to hear the orchestra when it played ‘Pictures at an Exhibition,’ ” the 57-year-old conductor says. “I was tremendously impressed with the quality of the players. So, when they asked me to come back this year, I accepted.

“This is an excellent orchestra, with first-class players in the solo chairs. Look at the first violins--there are at least five concertmasters in that section, each one better than the next. I told them at rehearsal yesterday, wouldn’t I like to take them back to Poland with me.”

At home, Kord has been music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic--his country’s leading orchestra--since 1977. He says that after 11 years, he has “extremely good rapport with the players--actually, better rapport than ever.”

The Polish ensemble, touring this season even more than usual because of reconstruction at its home theater in Warsaw, has recently been in Hong Kong, China and Japan. Kord came to the county from Japan two weeks ago via Cincinnati, where he conducted last week and to which he will return.

“My program here will show off this orchestra (the Pacific Symphony), I hope.” It begins with Bartok’s “Two Portraits,” with concertmaster Endre Granat featured, then Liszt’s “E-flat Piano Concerto,” with Alexander Peskanov as soloist and ends with Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.”

When visiting Los Angeles six years ago, Kord said that his busy symphonic schedule did not permit much operatic activity and that he missed it. Does he still?

“Since then, I have been able to do more and more. Not in Poland, unfortunately, which is not an opera center because, frankly, we do not have the money to bring in the important international singers,” he said.

“Still, I keep in touch with vocal music closely, because we have in my country some extremely fine choruses to perform with. We regularly do all the big requiems, a lot of Bach and Handel and, recently, concert performances of ‘Fidelio’ and Gluck’s ‘Orfeo.’

“And I conduct opera in New York and San Francisco. Two seasons ago, I conducted ‘MacBeth’ in San Francisco. At the Met, I did ‘MacBeth’ in December. I’ll be back at San Francisco for ‘Gioconda’ in the fall, then back for ‘Falstaff’ and ‘Otello’ in 1989. No, I’m not frustrated.”

A worldwide shortage of great singers remains a basic problem, Kord says: “There are some works it makes no sense to do unless you have the proper casting. Why would anyone produce ‘Otello’ without an appropriate tenor?”

Kasimierz Kord will conduct the Pacific Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center , 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa , today and Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $9 to $35. Information: (714) 556-2787.