MUSIC REVIEW : A Precise S.D. Chamber Orchestra Closes Its Season With Conviction

For its final concert of the season, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra acquitted itself honorably. Even if the orchestra performed in a secondary role for much of the evening--three of the four pieces were concertos--for the most part it sounded well-tuned, precise, and evenly balanced.

In Aaron Copland’s chamber version of “Appalachian Spring,” which opened this Sherwood Auditorium program, the players, under music director Donald Barra, made the most of its tender, lyrical passages and managed to infuse the overly familiar work with conviction.

Guitarist Angel Romero headed the roster of soloists for the evening. He played Manuel Ponce’s rather dour “Concierto del Sur,” and, with his teen-age son, Lito Romero, essayed Vivaldi’s sprightly Concerto for Two Guitars in G Major. (Any classical guitarist who doesn’t program one of those ubiquitous, saccharine Rodrigro guitar concertos has this reviewer’s eternal gratitude.)

In Ponce’s rarely performed “Concierto del Sur,” Angel Romero exhibited more earnest precision than rousing bravura, although the cadenzas sparked his characteristic verve. In spite of the soloist’s emotional restraint and a lack of coordination with the orchestra in the sparse middle movement, this neoclassical concerto with a decidedly Latin flavor placed the chamber orchestra in a flattering light.

The ample Sherwood audience showered its approval on the father and son team, even though Lito Romero’s modest sound hardly matched his father’s secure, resonant timbre. The elder Romero set a fleet pace, but Lito Romero kept up with well-disciplined rhythms and parallel phrasing.

Originally written for a pair of mandolins, the slender Vivaldi concerto is of dubious merit. Its arid middle movement cries out for ornamentation or some creative improvisation in authentic Baroque style. As an encore after the Vivaldi, Lito Romero offered his thoughtful version of Celedonio Romero’s “Fantasia.”

Barra brought his season to a stylish close with J. S. Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto, featuring four principals from the orchestra in the solo group. Considering how well they performed, it would have been considerate to have listed them either in the program or on an insert. John Wilds negotiated the formidable trumpet solo with an elegant, pointed line. Except for his tendency to rush his phrase beginnings, it was an exemplary execution. In the middle movement, violinist Igor Gruppman, flutist Linda Lukas, and oboist Peggy Michel sympathetically blended their gracefully arched phrases.

Barra’s tempos in this concerto were on the speedy side, but not beyond the pale.