Music Reviews : Youth Symphony Plays Brahms Program

As an antidote to Christmas carols, nothing could be more effective than a healthy dose of Brahms. But, at any time of year, the performance of two major Brahms works as enthusiastically played by the American Youth Symphony has to be welcome.

The 110 young people of Mehli Mehta’s 27-year-old training orchestra bring an affecting irrepressibility, as well as strong suits of instrumental accomplishment, to anything they play. Their performances, though often too loud and not well-modulated dynamically, remind us of the siren call of great music, its irresistible appeal, its nourishment for hungry spirits. They have the ability to restore its freshness.

They attacked the D-minor Piano Concerto and Fourth Symphony with particular relish, Sunday night in Royce Hall at UCLA.

This combination of youthful high spirits, Brahmsian affection and the acoustical brightness of the hall may have sent some veteran listeners into the night needing aural restoratives when it was over, yet the energy of these performances became contagious.

Besides the force of conductor Mehta’s commitment to these works, the principal energizer was the presence at the piano of Norman Krieger, the still-young (33) American pianist who commanded leadership in the First Piano Concerto.

Krieger has what this Everest among concertos requires: an unflagging sense of its musical scope; a technique superior to, and unfazed by, its demands in stamina and strength; the variety of touches and dynamic resources to probe its myriad emotional states.

Without stridency of tone, or effortfulness, and always staying within the dramatic parameters of each movement, Krieger ascended the work’s peaks and traveled its valleys. This was major-league piano playing; Mehta & Co. collaborated wholeheartedly, and without misstep.

On the other hand, there were a few, fleeting clinkers and blurbs and moments of irritating raucousness in the Fourth Symphony. In this context of assured enthusiasm, however, and even though a true orchestral pianissimo never reared its lovely head, one had to cherish the passion of the young people’s playing.