MUSIC REVIEW : Women’s Night Out at the Orange County Symphony

Billed as a salute to women in classical music, the latest concert by the enterprising Orange County Symphony featured a woman on the podium, a woman in the solo spot and a large-scale symphonic work composed by a woman.

The symphonic work was something of a novelty: the “Gaelic” Symphony in E minor, Opus 32, by Amy Beach (in less enlightened times known as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach). Written in 1896 and given its premiere in the same year by the Boston Symphony, the “Gaelic” Symphony has the distinction of being the first such work by an American woman.

And from that standpoint, it is an impressive piece of music. In this solidly crafted and confidently laid out symphony in four substantial movements, Beach attempted, no less, to solve a contemporary musical problem--the problem of writing distinctly “American” classical music. She went back to the folk music of our forebears in doing so; thus the symphony is thematically comprised of rustic, pastoral and lyrical Irish and Scottish tunes.

Unfortunately, this all gets rather weighed down in the ponderous Germanic tradition prevalent among American composers of that day, and the symphony chugs along--pleasantly enough but earthbound for most of its 42 minutes--in a pseudo-Schumanesque-Mendelssohnian fashion, with (of course) a peppering of Wagnerian chromaticism to make it respectable.

The Uruguayan-born guest conductor Gisele Ben-Dor led a rugged and strongly propelled performance, guiding the music knowingly to authoritative and hefty climaxes. The orchestra responded capably; there were some rough edges, to be sure, but they detracted little from the purposeful and motivated playing throughout.

Ben-Dor--a former conducting fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and now a guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic--opened the concert (in the Don Wash Auditorium Saturday night) with a thoroughly exciting performance of Dvorak’s “Carnival” Overture.

This was no routine run-through of a well-worn warhorse: Ben-Dor gauged balances, tempos and transitions expertly--achieving them with a baton technique of etched clarity and ready expressiveness--in a crisp, lyrically engrossing, rhythmically vibrant reading. She’s someone to keep an eye on.

In between Beach and Dvorak, Bulgarian cellist Magdelena Doikova offered an efficient reading of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. Although her tone tends toward the lean side and her technique, though always solid, remains short of virtuosic ease, Doikova gave a quietly singing and poised reading.

Ben-Dor and orchestra provided warm, neatly sculpted support--a collaboration really, so natural was the give and take between all involved.