Music Reviews : Schifrin and Delgado at the Pavilion

For whatever reasons Lalo Schifrin had ordered his program the atypical way he did Sunday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the effect of such planning allowed him and the Glendale Symphony to show their best wares first.

But it also meant that soloist Eduardo Delgado, playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, had to wait until last--and that a full audience would stay to the end for its supposedly delectable treat.

Schifrin led off with Ravel’s “ ‘Ma Mere l’Oye” Suite and if it took much effort to draw out the work’s lilting, gossamer strains one would never have guessed as much from his businesslike, impassive podium style.

Nevertheless, he coaxed the orchestra to play with delicacy, balance and aplomb. The aptly light-footed result was a muted one throughout, however, heard as though from behind an acoustic scrim.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, which followed, was nicely laid out. The conductor’s fine feeling for thrust-and-parry in the allegros, as well as his grasp of geniality and breadth elsewhere, stood him in good stead--despite a wiry sound in the agitated last movement.

But nothing prepared a listener for the discrepancies between the principals ensuing in the concerto--the finale nearly unraveled--or for the woeful winds, which had started to go awry before intermission.

True, the pianist, with feathery fluency but harshness in place of power, proved quirky, thus difficult to follow. Also, his rhythms, which can be wonderfully elastic, gave no comfort, nor did all the dropped notes.