MUSIC REVIEW : Carl St. Clair Leads Symphony

Programming is a pragmatic as well as an arcane art, as Carl St. Clair and the Pacific Symphony proved again Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

In an agenda moving steadily upward in excitement, and reaching its climactic point in Brahms’ Violin Concerto, the music director and his West Coast orchestra put familiar music in the best aural light, while giving an encouraging progress report on their joint upward mobility.

Through Mozart’s exposing Symphony No. 34, the demanding orchestral suite from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” and the Brahms work, the 38-year-old Texan and the 13-year-old Orange County-based orchestra--which began its life in Fullerton--demonstrated their clear rapport and technical expertise to this point in history.

Most authoritative, if not yet mostly deeply plumbed, was the musicians’ collaboration with soloist Cho-Liang Lin in the Violin Concerto, a noble reading well articulated, finely detailed and mechanically secure.

The violinist from Taiwan met all the work’s requirements of musicality, Brahmsian sympathy and technical resource in this performance, which began in nervousness but crested confidently in a poignant realization of the slow movement and a happy but not superficial jaunt through the finale.

The “Rosenkavalier” excerpts became a showcase for all solo chairs in the orchestra, as well as for virtuosic brass and string playing. The horn section, in particular, gloried in the many challenges the composer poses. This performance may not have achieved the ultimate in panache or confidence, but the ensemble clearly is moving in that direction.

Perhaps most encouraging for the future was the skilled reading St. Clair created in Mozart’s cherishable Symphony No. 34, a faceted work that can reveal weaknesses even in the most accomplished symphonic bands.

Unlike the acceptable, even admirable, performance we heard last month from the touring Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, this one overflowed with good humor, deep feelings, handsome details and an overall sense of ebullience. It dealt at no point in dryness, blandness or sobriety. And it proved again the clear difference between competence and talent.