MUSIC REVIEW : St.Clair: Back on His Home Turf : Music: The Pacific Symphony conductor’s return from New York showed him to be increasingly physical, although that didn’t generate great interpretations.

Oh, dear. Pacific Symphony music director Carl St.Clair has returned from his brief foray into the Big Apple with more conducting and musical mannerisms than ever. Or is it that absence makes the eye see clearer?

For those who haven’t heard, St.Clair led the New York Philharmonic last month in three subscription concerts and one youth program. While not exactly the “triumphant debut” touted in recent Pacific Symphony ads, it was a modest, respectful first appearance, duly noted by three critics, two of whom just happen to reside in Southern California.

His return to lead the home team in works by Mozart, Debussy and Brahms on Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center showed him to be an increasingly physical conductor.

He ventured or perfected several gestures or stances--the tilted-back observer; the bread-making churner; the half-turned-out, half-croucher; the bemused watcher.

None of it would matter terribly much if it generated great music-making or interpretation. It didn’t.

St.Clair still inclined to Germanic heaviness and assembling music in all-too-regularly measured patterns. He let energy and momentum slacken. He tended to slow down tempos for secondary subjects, mistaking gearing down for increasing suspense and tension. He led the middle movement of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, for instance, slower than paint dries.

Admittedly, he had to contend with one of the noisiest audiences in recent memory, as people coughed, hacked and sneezed with vehemence. Somehow, he kept his concentration. Remarkable.

Soloist in the Brahms concerto was Garrick Ohlsson, who left a mixed impression. Capable of dazzling pianism, ranging from clear, speedy, thunderous octaves to caressing bell tones, Ohlsson nonetheless did not communicate a consistent, clearly defined interpretation.

But he had a lot to struggle with. The timpani was overwhelming at the opening. He had to deal with the conductor’s wayward tempos. In the Adagio, it was unclear whether he simply capitulated or collaborated.

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St.Clair also conducted the overture to Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Debussy’s “La Mer.”

The orchestra sounded better in Mozart than it has in this literature in a long while, but it still offered energy without precision. “La Mer” emerged as more vaporous, patchy and impressionistic than the composer could ever have envisioned.

The music director apparently has abandoned the experiment last season of placing the string basses on an elevated platform at the rear of the stage. The instruments were set in the more typical position, on the floor at stage left. There was a corresponding increase in muddiness in the lower tones, however.

Still, there is some good news. Third in the line of recent guest concertmasters being considered to fill that vacant post was Henry Rubin, concertmaster of the Miami Chamber Symphony.

In brief solo passages, he played with warmth, poise and intelligent phrasing. There is a lot more to the job than soloing, but Rubin sounded like a real find.