Music and Dance Reviews : Mester Leads Pasadena Symphony at Civic Auditorium

Geography and a flair for orchestration were the ties that bound Saturday evening at Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Jorge Mester’s second program for the Pasadena Symphony was a hyper-familiar French affair.

The centerpiece was a dry, sparkling account of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in his local debut. The 26-year-old Frenchman played with poise, grace and clarity and projected a keen sense of architecture and understated drama.

Mester and his Pasadenans accompanied tidily enough. Their sound was light but not fluffy, supporting Bavouzet’s cool approach with balanced, accommodating ensemble.

Surrounding the concerto were two program-music classics. Mester began with a raucous, occasionally effortful, vigorously chuffing reading of Honegger’s “Pacific 231.” He respected the inventiveness and brashness of the score, downplaying the pictorial elements.

Mester and Co. delivered all the sentimental, fevered visions of Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique,” however, in a performance torn between fastidious, chamber-music detail and sheer sonic bravura and athleticism. The orchestra produced abundant, sometimes edgy and ill-tuned, sound, and solo playing of great character and skill, on behalf of Mester’s indulgent, vivid, schizophrenic interpretation.