MUSIC REVIEW : Alumni Help Youth Symphony Mark Anniversary

After 25 years together Mehli Mehta and the American Youth Symphony offer few surprises. Their concerts are predictably well-played and enthusiastically delivered and much more than your average rehashing of symphonic masterpieces. The Sunday night concert in Royce Hall, UCLA, part of the orchestra’s anniversary celebrations, was no exception, with highly accomplished, vital readings of familiar music before a large and appreciative audience.

While one must be impressed by the orchestra’s continued high technical standard, it is Mehta’s interpretations that lend these concerts more than passing interest. Sunday he conducted the entire concert from memory, and all of the music flowed with the naturalness and authority of his long association with it.

The evening’s big symphonic work was Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor. In his own program notes, Mehta revealed his strong identification with this music, and his performance bore this out. He gave its fervent, mystical language full sway, with unforced but dramatic pacing and lavish phrasing. He brought out its rich colorings by enforcing clear textures and subtle dynamic shadings. Climaxes were massive and momentous. The orchestra played with exuberance and conviction, and if the brass proved overenthusiastic on occasion, they erred on the side of intensity.

The first half of the program presented two AYS alumni and a current member as soloists. Harpist Marcia Dickstein confidently took on the solo duties for Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro. Her technical ease and sure sense of line gave clear direction to the music, while Mehta and his players were elegant though urgent in support.

Ex-concertmaster David Stenske, now a free-lance musician, and ex-principal violist Richard Elegino, now with the L.A. Philharmonic, were featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364. They proved directly communicative, unfussy soloists, particularly effective in their warm, singing account of the Andante. Mehta and orchestra gave the accompaniment a joyous reading with bright accents and emphatic outlines.