Music Review : Polite Rites Close Long Beach Season

JoAnn Falletta tamed the Stravinsky monster when closing her fifth season as music director of the Long Beach Symphony on Saturday at the Terrace Theater. The trouble is a civilized “Sacre du Printemps” is undoubtedly a contradiction in terms.

In a program that also included works by William Schuman and Gershwin, Falletta led a polished and problematic account of Stravinsky’s ballet score.

She managed to smooth out the colliding, abrupt changes in rhythms, dampen the pulsating energy, minimize the creepy, eerie elements and offer a smooth, well-regulated account of the music. “Sacre” somehow began to sound more like late-Romantic Strauss than epochal Stravinsky.

Although the score was a new addition to the Long Beach Symphony repertory, the orchestra played it with certainty, well-rounded attack, sheen, even with a certain opulence in color.

Something is definitely wrong, however, when there is more visceral excitement in the playing of William Schuman’s “New England Triptych,” which opened the program, than in “Sacre.”

Here, Falletta oversaw a bright, transparent and disciplined reading of the American composer’s bracing music. In addition to the sweep and energy she emphasized in the outer movements, she created a delicate background for the sensitive solos by oboist Larry Timm and bassoonist Julie Feves in the “When Jesus Wept” section.

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The center portion of the concert was a conflicted account of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with Lorin Hollander as soloist.

According to a spokesperson for the orchestra, Hollander has been dealing with some medical problems, which may or may not account for the musical problems heard.

The pianist offered heavily percussive playing, unsubtle in color, limited in dynamic, cool in approach and prone to sluggish tempos. The notes were there, but without much wit or verve.

Falletta seemed boxed in by his approach, particularly in trying to hold together the fragile second movement and to let loose whenever an opportunity arose to let a tune bloom.

Overall, however, she paid Gershwin due honor in treating his music with affection and respect and without exaggerating and cheapening the jazz-inspired idiom. Trumpeter Andy Ulyate proved a steady and stylish blues soloist.