MUSIC REVIEW : Chamber Performs Untamed Beethoven : Micah Levy conducts fiery interpretations at Irvine Barclay Theatre. Piano concerto eases the drama.

As the eighth season of the Orange County Chamber Orchestra began Monday night, music director Micah Levy prefaced the Beethoven program with a reference to Goethe’s description of the composer as a completely untamed person.

And it was with that personality in mind--the man of extremes--that Levy seemed to base his fiery interpretations during the concert at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

With his mop of curly hair and imposing figure, Levy conducted with larger-than-life motions in seemingly herculean effort to pull, to push, to demand. The 32-member orchestra did not respond by overwhelming with lush tones. Instead, it assaulted the opening Overture to “Coriolanus” with a lean, tension-filled reading aggressively propelled by insistent use of accents.

Cheng Hall can be friendly to the crystal clarity of a chamber orchestra. It can also reveal problems with startling honesty, such as imperfect intonation and ragged entrances in the violin section in “Coriolanus.” The larger works on the agenda received more careful attention, however, and the Seventh Symphony emerged in a rousing and taut reading that brought many of the 508 listeners to their feet.

Once again, Levy demanded strongly accented--and better balanced--lines. Orchestra members maintained a pregnant tension throughout the initial movement, shaping the long interplay of lines with controlled nuance. They built a sustained and engaging structure in the Allegretto. They highlighted an unabashed con brio with pristine silences and produced deft dynamic shifts in the finale.

Only the Fourth Piano Concerto brought a respite from sweeping drama. In the facile fingers of soloist Helene Wickett, the work approached an innocence not generally associated with it. Making spare use of pedal and permitting herself few liberties in tempo, Wickett played with attentive economy and mixed success.

In the closing Vivace, Wickett’s natural exuberance and bright, clean reading created an attractive celebration.

But she rushed through much of the conflict-fraught, first-movement cadenza with pleasant ingenuousness and offered a simple and unremarkable, though not insensitive, reading of the Andante Con Moto.