MUSIC REVIEWS : Bravura Finish for Pasadena Symphony

Even with a roster of players somewhat different from the usual suspects, the Pasadena Symphony, led by Jorge Mester, ended its 67th season in a blaze of bravura.

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony was the finale Saturday night in Pasadena Civic Auditorium and a beauteous blast it was, avoiding ugly stridency at every turn.

Before that, Beethoven’s G-major Piano Concerto became the occasion of a mellow but probing performance seriously displaying the accomplishments of soloist Howard Shelley and the orchestra.

And the evening’s opener, Samuel Barber’s exposing “School for Scandal” Overture, showed the ensemble at its most integrated and communicative.

Shelley, who played Rachmaninoff 2 with Mester/Pasadena three years ago, commanded further respect with his sculptured, polished and good-humored playing of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto. Here were gleaming surfaces, musical depths and technical solidity. The 45-year-old British pianist ought to return to us in recital--too bad Ambassador Auditorium will not be there to welcome him.

Aside from a little raggedness in the opening movement and occasionally labored phrasing in the second, Mester’s leadership and the orchestra’s virtuosic playing of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony proved the right repertory for this happy event.

Program inserts informed us that longtime concertmaster Paul Shure, seated in the audience on this occasion, will retire from that post at the end of the season. Also that this performance, recorded live by KUSC (91.5 FM), can be heard on that station next Monday at 8 p.m.