MUSIC REVIEWS : Hege Leads Debut Orchestra at the Pavilion

Now in his final season as conductor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, Daniel Hege is challenging himself--and his players--with at least one big, complicated, rugged symphonic work in each of his last four programs.

Sunday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the challenge was Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3, the “Sinfonia espansiva,” and Hege and orchestra met it not only with the expected spirit--these are young musicians after all--but with finesse and sensitivity as well.

Hege made his way forcefully through this mercurial and volatile music, in a surely paced, clearly detailed and many-faceted interpretation. The orchestra responded with crisp ensemble, strong individual playing (the woodwinds impressed especially), poised balances and tempo changes. Nielsen’s oddly shaped impulses emerged consistently with nuance and style, his soaring melodies with verve and fluidity.

If the orchestra couldn’t quite muster the granitic grandeur of the score’s biggest moments, it did produce intense, fully energized sounds. Baritone Scott Watanabe and soprano Jennifer Smith offered solid contributions in the wordless lyricism of the second movement Andante pastorale.

Earlier, Hege and orchestra had given a bright, compact reading of Weber’s “Euryanthe” Overture to open the concert.

But things didn’t go so well in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Leonard Pennario as soloist. This was a mess almost from beginning to end, a tempo war, really, between the pianist and the orchestra. Pennario’s frequently garbled projection and an apparent memory lapse didn’t help matters. The standing ovation that followed was truly puzzling.

In encore, with Scriabin’s “Left Hand” Nocturne and Gottschalk’s “Le Banjo,” the veteran pianist seemed more at ease.