MUSIC REVIEW : Guest General Leads a Massacre of Bach and Haydn

Inviting Alexander Schneider to conduct the first of three concerts in the San Diego Symphony’s Classically Baroque series was a colossal mistake. The octogenarian conductor, who made his Copley Symphony Hall debut Thursday night, displayed not the faintest sympathy for the performance of 18th-Century music.

His grotesque caricature of Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 and his utter distortion of J. S. Bach’s First Suite for Orchestra proved cruel and unusual punishment to those who admire the craft and inspiration of those composers.

The concept of this new series is indeed laudable: to perform music that predates the advent of the large modern symphony orchestra by using a judiciously pared down ensemble. However, the execution is not foolproof, as Schneider clearly demonstrated.

The 30-piece ensemble, clustered at the forward edge of the stage for Thursday’s program, had a comfortable, lively presence in the hall.

In the solo sections of the Bach Suite, for example, the intricate counterpoint of the two oboes and bassoon shimmered elegantly in such intimate proximity to the audience. In Giuseppe Torelli’s modest but charming Concerto Grosso for Two Violins in A Minor, concertmaster Igor Gruppman and principal violin II Alex Palamidis alternated their lyrical flights cogently and deftly.

But Schneider’s relentlessly exaggerated fortes, ridiculous sforzandos, uncharacteristic cadential ritardandos, loutish pounding out of the bass lines and misshapen phrasing made such intermittent pleasures a moot point.

In the right hands, the late Haydn symphonies elegantly balance drama and wit. Schneider threw Symphony No. 90 on the anvil and attempted to hammer it into Beethoven at his stormiest.

The lilting Menuet sounded like a peasant Landler danced in military boots. It is a miracle the orchestra was nevertheless able to play with discipline, cohesion and balanced string sound.

The Bach Suite for Orchestra, a string of contrasting dance movements, lumbered along at Schneider’s relentless drubbing. If there is no single “correct” way to perform Bach, it is equally true that the one wrong way is to ignore every shred of known Baroque performance practice, which Schneider did with brio.

The last time this writer heard Bach played with such insensitivity, it was on a musty recording that was instantly tossed out the window by a disgusted music history teacher.

Thursday’s concert opened with a quiet Vivaldi Sinfonia (“Al Santo Sepolcro”). Its sweetly benign harmonies, however, gave no indication of the musical massacre that was to follow.