Music Review : Seaman Conducts Pacific Symphony Program

British conductor Christopher Seaman was the latest candidate-on-the-spot as the Pacific Symphony continued its search for a music director at Segerstrom Hall. Look for him on the short list.

Seaman was principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony and currently is conductor-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony. His program Tuesday night was challenging and unhackneyed, and the orchestra responded impressively to his no-nonsense ministrations.

He began with a noble and vibrant reading of Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Seaman stressed, above all, orchestral balances and ensemble precision. One noticed little things, unspectacular details: the perfect unity of flutes and tambourine in accompaniment to the basses; the careful balance between woodwinds and basses when the trombones were featured.

Tempo changes and transitions--this score abounds in them--were handily traversed. Within this tidy framework the various individual and sectional solos could, and did, unwind with relaxed and sparkling confidence.

To conclude, Seaman chose the heavy-duty musings of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 in E minor. This hour-long exercise in enigma raises more questions than it answers, but Seaman gave those questions clear shape and forthright declaration.

Again his straightforward baton work served the orchestra well and it played with assured bravado; the strings in particular performed with impressive unanimity and conviction. Climaxes were weighty indeed, thanks largely to such seemingly modest details as a conscientious attention to balance. The means of Seaman’s interpretation may have been workmanlike, the results were not.

In between came the Violin Concerto No. 5 by Henri Vieuxtemps, with Anne Akiko-Meyers as soloist. She’s the latest in the line of glamorous (strapless gown and modish hairdo), young (19) violinists. Her technique is, of course, rock solid; her sound is big and bright, yet meaty. She brought an aggressive lyricism to bear on the music, but not much subtlety. The results were mildly diverting--probably as much the composer’s doing as it was hers.