MUSIC REVIEW : Stewart’s Eloquence Crowns Britain Salute : Garden Grove Symphony celebrates British music, poetry in an innovative program.

If “Ideas are events” as Flaubert once stated, then the Garden Grove Symphony’s latest concert qualifies as such. Under the baton of Music Director Edward Peterson the orchestra on Saturday offered an unhackneyed program (an event in itself) of British music coupled with the reading of British poetry by Patrick Stewart of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and Royal Shakespeare Company fame. The combination worked well.

The concert--in Donald R. Wash Auditorium here--began with poetry set by Britten in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, read by Stewart and framed simply by the solo horn prologue and epilogue (played by Brian Smith). Stewart recites, of course, with uncommon eloquence, and he readily used his acting abilities to bring the poems vividly to life.

After intermission he offered readings of poems from Britten’s “Nocturne,” this time without any music, and this time without the benefit of a microphone. Despite his modesty about his musical abilities, Stewart read these poems with genuine melodiousness, highlighting meaning with variations of timbre, clear elocution, flexible tempos and pointed accenting. Wonderfully done.

Peterson opened his portion of the concert with the Walton’s bustling “Portsmouth Point” Overture in a generally crisp and cogent reading. Although the orchestra didn’t quite capture its brilliant orchestration, it handled the metrical hurdles with panache.

Peterson’s nervous reading of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis precluded expansiveness and linear clarity, as did the thin-sounding strings and spotty intonation. Things went better for Elgar’s seldom-heard “Crown of India” and in Malcolm Arnold’s Scottish Dances, with Peterson eliciting delicate textures and robust power from the ensemble.

Stewart returned to conclude the program as narrator in Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Each section managed its moment with spirit, if not always with polish. No doubt Peterson’s musicians would have appreciated a slower tempo for the fugue. Stewart’s forthright narration brought the generally solid account into sharp formal focus.