MUSIC REVIEWS : Pasadena Symphony Meets Challenges

Call it a masterpiece sandwich: Two great works wrapped in two virtuoso displays--four layers, the substance and protein within, the sugar and glitz without.

Thus, Jorge Mester’s first Pasadena Symphony program of 1994, at its center, Max Bruch’s often underrated G-minor Violin Concerto and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony; outside, John Adams’ noisy, brief and daunting “Slow Ride in a Fast Machine” and Respighi’s fireworks-laden, gloriously tawdry “Feste Romane.”

A jolly package? Certainly. The surprise, Saturday night in Pasadena Civic Auditorium, was the high polish on all four works. With a long tradition of notoriously short rehearsal time, the orchestra played this challenging agenda not only with complete confidence but also without executional mishaps. Each work seemed to emerge in its best aural light--at least as heard from an acoustically helpful location in the balcony.

Most unexpected, because it often gets short shrift on pops programs (and usually outdoors), Bruch’s First Violin Concerto sounded on this occasion like the wondrous work it is.

That had to be due in large part to the impassioned performance, immaculate technique and deeply projected musicality of the soloist, French violinist Olivier Charlier, who brought a sense of newness to the familiar piece and had reconsidered every aspect of its structure and detailing. But it also reflected credit on Mester’s--and the orchestra’s--committed and attentive collaboration.

The evening began with a perfect overture, Adams’ irrepressible “Slow Ride,” its challenges nonetheless exigent for its four-minute length. It closed with “Feste Romane,” in as showy and satisfying a symphonic romp as this auditorium may have heard in years: fearless, brazen and multifaceted.

These qualities could be all the more appreciated after Mester’s restrained but emotional, pristine and sculpted reading of Schubert’s exposing B-minor Symphony. Contrast works.