O.C. MUSIC REVIEW : A Promising Season Opener : But, even though individuals shined, the Garden Grove Symphony played only a routine concert under a guest conductor.

The Garden Grove Symphony got its 1990-91 season under way Saturday night with a concert that revealed more promise than polish.

Music director Edward Peterson was on hand only for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Korean national anthem and the rest of the program were led by guest conductor Won-Sik Lim, music director of the Inchon City Symphony in South Korea. His appearance at Saturday’s concert at Donald R. Wash Auditorium in Garden Grove (repeated Sunday in Costa Mesa) was part of a conductor-exchange between the two orchestras.

The 70-year-old Lim, who studied with Serge Koussevitzky, has had a long and pioneering career in Korea. Saturday, he led never-less-than-solid performances of Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky as well as works by Korean composers.

Elisa Lee Koljonen provided the evening’s high point with her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

The 17-year-old violinist exhibited solid technical abilities, with an attractive, rounded tone and confident intonation. If she missed a few of the work’s finer points in her straightforward performance, she also showed a firm grasp of its general intent.

Soprano Hae-Jeong Yang contributed three selections, including the simple, tuneful “Longing for Keumkang Mountain” by Young Sup Choi. Her vocal abilities are sure, her tone bright and well focused. In her singing of arias from Verdi’s “Nabucco” and Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” the high notes seemed to be her main point.

After intermission Lim led Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony. Throughout a generally sturdy performance, the orchestra revealed itself a strong grouping of individual musicians rather than a congealed ensemble. Lim found the gentle lilt and delicate colors in the scherzo and managed some hushed dynamics in the Andante. Elsewhere it was more a matter of keeping the players neatly together than of producing a cohesive interpretation.

The concert began with another Korean work, the picturesque and folksy “Korean Fantasy.”