MUSIC REVIEWS : Pacific Pops Effort Features Rachmaninoff

Professional observers face different challenges in reporting outdoor concerts: The programs can be simpler than winter-season assignments but the listening sometimes proves much more complicated.

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A genuine pops program conducted by Carl St.Clair, second event in the Pacific Symphony’s 1994 summer series at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, again became the occasion for intense self-debate on Saturday night.

Metallic (i.e., tinny) amplification seemed to be the order of the evening; adequate bass response appeared only infrequently. The orchestra often sounded undernourished and the resident Yamaha grand piano disappointed greatly. This was one of those times when believing your own ears was no fun at all.

Further, all these drawbacks were even more frustrating since the actual performances--by an orchestra with a few different faces than the one that plays at the Orange County Performing Arts Center from fall through spring--seemed decent. Pleasant, even.

Indoors, music director St.Clair’s way with Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony might seem exuberant and youthfully rushed; in the open air, carried through microphones and speakers, it irritated through one-dimensionality and often, if not always, became pushed by a gracelessness not dictated by the notes on the page.

Similarly, one of Beethoven’s tackier scores-for-profit--one which has been nonetheless performed at other outdoor sites with some success--”Wellington’s Victory,” the so-called “Battle” Symphony, also lacked full resonance in this setting and emerged only partially effective. This despite the conductor’s careful and clarifying approach.

The local debut of 23-year old Meng-Chieh Liu, a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, caused this event, called “Rachmaninoff by Moonlight,” to live up to its name. As promised, the full moon appeared on schedule, after intermission, and the well-trained Liu leaped all hurdles in this familiar test-piece.

He has power and digitality, note-honesty and dynamic resources in great abundance. With strong cooperation from St.Clair & Co., he certainly drove this vehicle with ease. Of course he should be brought back, preferably in recital, wherein his other musical gifts can be ascertained.

Attendance: 7,154.