MUSIC REVIEW : All-Rodrigo Concert Opens La Jolla Season

Thomas Nee and his La Jolla Civic-University Orchestra inaugurated the fall season with a curious all-Rodrigo program Saturday night at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium. Although most local music organizations don’t get in gear until mid-October--some are even waiting to begin after the Soviet arts festival does its damage--the La Jollans bravely set the pace.

An entire concert devoted to Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, whose aversion to dissonance is nearly equal to that of the typical orchestra board member, is hardly typical of Nee’s programming. Over the years, music director Nee has favored unjustly neglected large-scale works and avant-garde orphans only a composer could love. After some 20 years on the La Jolla podium, Nee evidently is not willing to be bound to any pat formula.

For this program, the orchestra was appropriately scaled down to a generous 40-piece ensemble. After a respectable reading of the opening “Soleriana,” a sugar-coated orchestral dance suite, the evening devolved into a series of star turns for various guest performers. Soprano Laurie Romero gave the four orchestral songs, “Quatro Madrigali Amatorios,” a rousing, stylish interpretation that made the audience wish to hear much more of this brilliant young singer. With impassioned declamation and sympathetic phrasing, Romero made these Andalusian folk melodies shimmer. And her bright, full voice with its slightly dramatic edge flaunted the fioritura of the final song “De los alamos” with coquettish abandon.

Randy Pile and Alexander Dunn, two promising local guitarists, interpreted Rodrigo’s signature works, the “Concierto de Aranjuez” and the “Fantasia para un gentilhombre” with more equivocal results. Pile projected a confident, brightly articulated approach to the “Concierto de Aranjuez,” and the orchestra gave a solid accompaniment to this staple of the classical radio airwaves. While Pile gracefully negotiated the intricate traceries of the lyrical middle movement, he lost some of his momentum in the finale. This did not prevent him, however, from playing a Rodrigo work for solo guitar as an encore.

In the “Fantasia,” Dunn was too cautious, too reserved to make his own case for the familiar concerto. He displayed a supple technique, but he appeared lost in his own musical thoughts, too frequently ignoring the orchestral accompaniment. Since it was the orchestra’s poorest showing of the evening, he might be partially forgiven for such retreats, but it contributed to a fragmented, inconclusive performance.