MUSIC REVIEWS : Garden Grove Symphony Closes Its Season

Maybe it was the heat. Perhaps it was the hall.

Whatever the cause, the Garden Grove Symphony spent the first half of its season finale Saturday making music in a decidedly inconsistent manner. Guest conductor Philippe Bender, director of the Orchestre Regional de Cannes-Provence, did a great deal more than just beat time and oversee orchestral traffic, yet memorable results of a positive nature were a long time in coming.

Billed “A French Gala,” the proceedings opened with Berlioz’s Overture to “Benvenuto Cellini.” Bender mustered a mighty sound, impressive if one could overlook its blaring and diffused quality. The quieter moments fared no better, rife with ragged entrances and questionable intonation.

The normally suitable Don Wash Auditorium revealed its true place in the scheme of things as a high-school facility first, symphony hall a distant second. More than adequate on previous occasions, it proved barely able to support an ensemble of Berliozian girth. In roaring fortissimos, several hardy string players appeared ready to spill right over the edge of the stage.

Of course the piano didn’t help the space problem, but they had to have it for Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Or did they? As matters turned out, this usually scintillating masterpiece had (on the whole) all the musical personality of a fallen souffle.

Pianist Deborah Kiszely displayed occasional glimpses of substantial talent, particularly when unfettered by the orchestra in the extended solo opening the second movement. But the first movement transpired in slow motion, the rhapsodic central passages reduced to a virtual standstill. Even generous doses of sass and insouciance, however, would not have obviated careless orchestral transitions and phrasing.

So just when one began to dread sitting through a potentially deadly reading of Franck’s Symphony in D-minor, a minor miracle occurred. Bender showed that his podium skills not only look right, but can produce music that sounds right. And the Garden Grove Symphony reminded us that at its best it is far more than just another little orchestra south of Los Angeles.

The warhorse had sweep and power to be sure, but subtlety of dynamic shading was in welcome abundance as well. Bender persuasively delineated both inner and overall structures, culminating in climaxes of inevitability, rather than predictability. The push-button standing ovation was a little slow in coming, but the crowd eventually staggered to its collective feet.

Maybe it was the heat.