MUSIC REVIEW : Debut Orchestra at Wilshire Ebell

The Young Musicians Foundation concert at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on Sunday was a homecoming of sorts for a former YMF alumna and prize winner. It was nearly 20 years ago that the young Los Angeles-born Zina Schiff, now living in Shreveport, La., played the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the same Debut Orchestra, though she has made subsequent local appearances.

Sunday’s vehicle was a work heard all-too-infrequently: Barber’s Violin Concerto. Exhibiting great poise and unerring control, she delivered a clean, precise account of the 1940 composition. Though she seemed emotionally reticent during the first movement, her warm, vibrant tone and depth of expression surfaced during the Andante. She deftly sailed through the technical hurdles of the moto perpetuo Presto with absolute clarity. Jung-Ho Pak presided over a well-disciplined, responsive orchestra.

Following intermission, Pak led the ensemble in Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. The orchestra’s youthful conductor-in-training exhibited a clear, unencumbered beat, a thorough knowledge of the score and much enthusiasm.

His first movement, however, did not really communicate; here, despite fine dynamic contrasts and a good orchestral sound, inflexible tempos made the music sound stale. But thereafter Pak’s account proved exciting and personal: The Allegro giocoso exploded with vitality; the Finale proved rich in dynamic tension and dramatic contrast. From the 15th row, it seemed that the Ebell’s amplification system caused most of the sound to come from the large speakers on either side rather than the stage; the horns, in any event, sounded somewhat too soft.

To open the program, Pak led an ensemble of 23 wind players in a taut, well-balanced reading of Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments.”