MUSIC REVIEW : Kenner Flaunts His Immaculate Technique at Pops Show

After a string of international competition triumphs--and some near triumphs--pianist Kevin Kenner returned to San Diego to demonstrate what all the fuss has been about. Wednesday night, the lanky Coronado native sported his immaculate keyboard technique and sang-froid in the Grieg A Minor Piano Concerto with the San Diego Symphony at Embarcadero Marina Park South.

Considering the perils and sonic distractions of the outdoor SummerPops setting, Kenner brought immense dignity to the old war horse. It was sheer pleasure to hear all the notes for a change--every grace note cleanly articulated and every flowing arabesque elegantly detailed. Even with the unforgiving close miking of the piano, Kenner’s fortes were solid without a hint of bombast. This was Grieg on his own terms, not played as surrogate Tchaikovsky.

Kenner’s patrician approach was not without certain drawbacks, however. The middle movement lacked a certain intimacy; Kenner had the proportions right, but not the wistful, Romantic spirit. And his deliberate tempo in the last movement muted its emotional impact.

Guest conductor Frank Fetta gave Kenner grudging support, although the perky young American conductor had elicited a more spirited, cohesive response from the players in both Otto Nicolai’s Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and excerpts from Aram Khachaturian’s “Masquerade” Suite. Perhaps the orchestra sounded fatigued in the Grieg because the concerto came at the end of a 2 1/2-hour program.

Fetta’s longish pops program turned out to be an endurance contest with something for everybody. For the run-of-the-mill pops fans, he included a pair of overtures and the Khachaturian Suite; for aficionados of American kitsch, he trotted out Morton Gould’s Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra. And for the serious listener, in addition to the complete Grieg Piano Concerto, Fetta included the first movement of the Dvorak Cello Concerto.

Xin-Hua Ma, the symphony’s principal cello, soloed in the Dvorak. After she confidently launched into the concerto, she had to stop and adjust a loose string. This took some of the wind out of her sails, but she completed the movement with authority and unmistakable sympathy for the composer’s ingratiating melodies.

Gould’s rarely exhumed 1952 “Tap Dance” Concerto surely is an acquired taste. Local dancer Karl Warkentien brought a jaunty, balletic flare to his assignment in the unusual four-movement concerto. Although the dancer was restricted to the edge of the stage in front of the orchestra, his exuberant choreography was significantly more assured than the orchestra’s middling rendition of Gould’s slick pop rhythms.

* The SummerPops series continues today and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., when guest conductor Fetta will lead vocal soloists Melody Rossi and Eduardo Villa, who will sing excerpts from Bizet’s “Carmen” in the “Hot Latin Nights” concerts.