CLASSICAL MUSIC : Kim’s Violin Makes Up for Orchestra

Unlike the other two local fledgling chamber orchestras of a few years ago, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra is a survivor. Monday evening at Sherwood Auditorium, under the baton of its music director Donald Barra, the orchestra played its final concert of the current season. In the Sherwood lobby, the organization sported a poster of its upcoming 1988-89 season, which it recently announced.

But, although the Monteverdi Chamber Orchestra and the Pacific Chamber Ensemble are defunct, Barra’s orchestra has not flourished musically in spite of four seasons of black ink at the box office.

Take the orchestra’s sound. While Sherwood Auditorium is not the kindest acoustical environment, the orchestra has rarely approached a harmonious blend or a well-focused, cohesive ensemble. Monday’s rendition of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony was typical of the orchestra’s disheartening musical plateau. The sections that should have been bold and brilliant were forced and strident, while the composer’s typical effervescent contrasts sounded constricted and overly deliberate. A work which is usually described as “sunny” was overcast in its best moments.

Barra may work hard on the podium, but he does not kindle either a warm response or a sense of musical conviction from his players. The orchestra’s roster is not second rate: half the players also perform with the San Diego Symphony or, like Barra, are members of the San Diego State University music faculty.

Take Barra’s programming. Hardly a member of the loyal La Jolla subscription audience would hire a caterer who could not turn out a respectable gourmet spread. Yet, Barra’s musical menus are strictly meat and potatoes fare. The last three La Jolla programs have been restricted to the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, with the sole exception of Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings” played last month. Monday’s program paired Mozart’s Overture to “La Clemenza di Tito” and his A Major Violin Concerto, K. 219, with the Mendelssohn symphony.

Fortunately, Young Uck Kim’s exquisite performance of the concerto helped redeem the evening. The Korean violinist is a Mozart specialist, having performed all 35 of Mozart’s violin sonatas with pianist Peter Serkin, and he is scheduled to record the A Major Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. His thorough preparation of the work was apparent.

Kim’s sweet, supple timbre treads a happy middle ground between the disembodied precision of many younger players and the overripe, Romantic swooping of the Russian-influenced previous generation of violinists. If his long legato lines and phrasing belong more to a 19th-Century approach to Mozart, as opposed to an interpretation based on late 18th-Century performance practices, he is easily forgiven. Such sensitive playing communicated the rich emotional meaning behind the composer’s disarmingly facile work.