Music and Dance Reviews : Neubauer Soloist in Long Beach Season Finale

Looking back at JoAnn Falletta’s first season as conductor of the Long Beach Symphony, supporters of that orchestra have good reason to rejoice. Concerts are sold out, the pre-concert lectures are well-attended, and the orchestra plays better than ever.

And certainly among Falletta’s triumphs is an entire season of brilliantly planned programs. The final regular subscription program of the season--Saturday at the Terrace Theater--is a case in point.

There are those who deny the existance of a viola concerto repertoire, but William Walton’s handsomely wrought, highly original and adroitly scored concerto disproves that immediately. Paul Neubauer, who at 27 already has behind him a 5-year tenure as principal violist of the New York Philharmonic (he resigned from that post about a year ago), delivered an absorbing and utterly convincing account of the 1929 composition.

The Los Angeles-born violist produced a rich, warm sound and infused the haunting melodies of the slow movements with great ardor. To the crackling Scherzo he brought clarity and remarkable control. The orchestra supported him with vitality and, for the most part, rhythmic security.

After intermission, Falletta and the orchestra brought probing depth and telling insight to Brahms’ First Symphony. The conductor paid fine attention to detail, and textures remained clear and balances judicious--until the very end, where the brass were allowed to exert to the point to raucousness.

John Harbison’s “Remembering Gatsby: Foxtrot for Orchestra” opened the program with spirited good nature.