MUSIC REVIEW : Inspired ‘Carmina’ at Center : Carl St. Clair, leading the Pacific Symphony, reveals the wherewithal to make his enthusiasm work at the program in Costa Mesa.

COSTA MESA — Youth is not always wasted on the young. Carl St. Clair proved that Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where he led the Pacific Symphony in music for which he clearly has youthfully ardent feeling.

This was most evident in his performance of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” during which the conductor seemed barely to control his enthusiasm. The results were vivid and visceral, a “Carmina” of underlined intensities.

More important, St. Clair revealed the wherewithal to make his enthusiasm work. He did not merely emote. Working without score, he led a tightly disciplined reading, taut in rhythm, balanced in texture and crisp in contrast. He paced the work authoritatively, his tempo changes sure and jolting, his phrasing timed like spoken dialogue.

What emerged was a sometimes uncomfortably barbaric and unabashedly theatrical “Carmina,” executed by a knowing intellect.

The Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale responded with jarring power and keen precision. St. Clair’s strong trio of soloists included baritone Haijing Fu, who sang with stentorian heft and adept drama, and soprano Beverly Hoch, who offered pure and poised tones. Tenor Frank Kelly warbled convincingly as the hapless swan.

The sole disappointment of the evening came in Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365, with duo pianists Arianna Goldina and Remy Loumbrozo. Theirs proved a bubbly and neatly played performance, best in the Andante where the warm ebb and flow of their partnership became most evident.

But in choosing to perform without the lids on their pianos, the performers ensured a diffused sound in the Segerstrom acoustic. Their playing was generally loud enough but dissipated in nuance and articulation. St. Clair and ensemble provided an exceptionally curt accompaniment, occasionally disheveled, sometimes beat-bound.

St. Clair opened the program with an effective presentation of Charles Ives’ “Central Park in the Dark.” Leaving the strings to their own ethereal devices, the conductor stepped off the podium, strolled into the orchestra’s woodwind section and built the faster-paced cacophony of popular tunes from there.