TV REVIEW : ‘Baton’ Showcases 2 Conductors

The principal aim of tonight’s “Passing the Baton” would seem to be to contrast the personalities and styles of venerable former Chicago Symphony music director Sir Georg Solti and his successor, the 30-years-younger Daniel Barenboim, to whom Solti “passed the baton” (it wasn’t as simple as the program makes out) in 1991, after more than two decades on the Chicago podium.

The hourlong installment of “Great Performances” (at 8 p.m. on KPBS-TV Channel 15, 9 p.m. on KVCR-TV Channel 24, 10 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28) most emphatically has a focal point: the brilliant, incisive, pugnacious, impatient and often imperious Hungarian-born Sir Georg, whose cut-and-slash interpretive style mirrors the man to perfection.

By contrast, the Argentine-born, Israeli-reared Barenboim comes off as verbally bland, even ponderous--traits, some might aver, that carry over into his music-making.

During the hour, one gets to know, and is oddly cheered, by Solti’s vital, abrasive presence. But we learn nothing about the orchestra members’ feelings toward either conductor beyond the unilluminating words of a couple of its distinguished elder principals.

Among various performer encomiums strewn about, the wittiest--for Solti--are supplied by Placido Domingo, while Pierre Boulez’s musically pointed appreciation of Barenboim has its humane counterpart in Itzhak Perlman’s wisecracking.

As for the “stunning performance footage” promised by the “Great Performances” flacks, forget it. The music is fleeting and strictly background.