MUSIC REVIEW : San Diego Symphony’s Brass Section Sounds Off With Brilliance at Concert

Friday’s San Diego Symphony concert at Copley Symphony Hall proved a banner night for brass.

In Haydn’s E-flat Major Trumpet Concerto, principal trumpet Calvin Price gave the familiar showpiece an elegantly lyrical turn, and in Dmitri Shostakovich’s epic Fifth Symphony, the orchestra’s brass sections shamelessly flaunted their brilliance and rich ensemble.

Fortunately, there was more to savor than fanfares and flourishes. Music director Yoav Talmi crafted a serenely expansive interpretation of Shostakovich’s most celebrated symphonic score. Whether the Fifth Symphony is a radiant example of pristine Socialist Realism or a covert send-up of Stalin’s poster-art taste in music depends upon one’s reading of history--and whether or not one accepts the controversial, posthumous Shostakovich memoirs collected by Solomon Volkov in “Testimony.”

Talmi sided with the former school, taking the score at face value and avoiding the ironic subtext Maxim Shostakovich underlined when he conducted the work here in 1988. Talmi caressed the symphony’s soaring themes, finding an almost pastoral tranquillity in the opening movements. In the Largo, Talmi and the orchestra compellingly probed its mysterious spirituality. The finale’s usually blustery military cadences seemed more appropriate to a May Day parade than a call to arms, and only in the opening-movement march did the conductor encourage a sardonic twinge from the winds. Overall, Talmi elicited a polished, refined performance.

For precision, sheer sonic allure, and voluptuous phrasing, Price’s Haydn would be difficult to top, although his ravishing tone and seamless phrasing made his big E-flat trumpet sound more like a mellow cornet. But in the concluding Rondo, he demonstrated nimble, percussive attacks and discrete articulations in the rapid passage work that brought him back into authentic trumpet territory. Talmi chose an aptly trimmed down orchestra for the Haydn and favored his first-chair trumpeter with a stylish, deftly tailored accompaniment.

Edvard Grieg’s wistful “Holberg” Suite, Op. 40, opened the program on a pleasant, albeit low-keyed note. The orchestra’s strings have rarely sounded more integrated and sweetly ingratiating, although in the spirited Rigaudon, they stumbled a shade behind the pulse.