MUSIC REVIEW : Cautious Approach Taken by South Coast Symphony

In trying to establish a niche for itself, the South Coast Symphony has one tremendous advantage: its hall.

Within the attractive, clearly focused acoustics of the Irvine Barclay Theatre, just about any kind of classical music sounds good--and even though the hall’s clarity can ruthlessly expose any seams in the sonic fabric, it can also keep an ensemble on its toes.

On Saturday night, unfortunately, the prevailing message was: Back to the warhorses, back to caution, back to keeping the music museum alive on artificial life support.

Give the orchestra this--except for a handful of anticipated entrances, it played Brahms’ First Symphony immaculately, with well-gauged balances, a solid, bass-rich string tone and excellent winds.

But that didn’t matter much, since the interpretation was out to lunch. Conductor John Larry Granger simply ran through the pages in a business-like, matter-of-fact manner, apparently unaware of any opportunities to make passionate or poetic points. If he has any deep feelings for the piece, they escaped these ears.

Likewise, Granger just pushed the Mozart Flute Concerto No. 1 forward briskly, allowing little room for anyone to breathe--and this time, the conductor didn’t even have crisp ensemble going for him. He did, however, have Lawrence Kaplan--a sure-tongued, imaginative, assertive flute soloist who supplied virtually all of the eloquence in the performance and projected real suspense in the cadenzas. Kaplan also came up with a solo encore, Debussy’s “Syrinx.”

Thankfully, a wisp of imaginative programming blew through the hall at the outset, as Granger opened with Minnesota composer Libby Larsen’s “Parachute Dancing.” Not that Larsen’s six-minute trifle is much of a piece; it pounds and glistens for a while in a colorful tonal language and then peters out in a sweep of weird violin glissandos. It was just a brief reminder that there is plenty of audience-friendly contemporary music out there for the taking--and in the long run, it may do more to build audiences than prosaic readings of Brahms.