Music Reviews : Mehli Mehta Leads Youth Symphony

Now in his 26th season as conductor of the American Youth Symphony, Mehli Mehta approaches his duties with seemingly undiminished enthusiasm. The indefatigable conductor is predictable only in that he never settles for routine run-throughs.

Sunday night in Royce Hall at UCLA, Mehta again inspired his players to vibrant performances. His only fault on this occasion, which lasted well over 2 1/2 hours, may have been that there was too much of it.

As at each concert so far this season, Mehta began with a Mozart symphony, this time the “Prague.” Though leading a reduced ensemble, he elicited robust sonorities and strongly outlined expressions. In the outer movements, his ever-active inflection of rhythms propelled the music vigorously forward.

Mehta concluded the concert with four selections from Copland’s “Rodeo,” in big, brash, incisive readings. Perhaps some of the rhythmic sophistication eluded conductor and orchestra, but it hardly mattered, so vivid and confident was the music-making.

In between came two concertos, the first featuring Linda Love in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Her reading fascinated with its idiosyncracies, sudden tempo changes, flexibility of line and variety of articulation. With Mehta and orchestra accompanying in kind, the Concerto emerged in all of its volatile moodiness.

Then, Daniel Shindaryov, a former concertmaster of the Bolshoi Ballet, played the Violin Concerto No. 4 by Paganini, a mishmash of Italianate ditties all decked out for maximum display. Shindaryov exhibited impressive dexterity, but his intonation and tone proved inconsistent. The hoary “Hora Staccato” (Dinicu-Heifetz) served as encore.