MUSIC REVIEW : Roberta Peters Guests With Glendale Symphony

In the time-honored tradition of more is more, of leaving no seasonal chestnut unroasted, the Glendale Symphony ranged widely and long in its holiday concert at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Friday night.

It had its ups and downs but was greeted by a sizable throng with consistently dutiful applause.

Music director Keith Clark stormed on stage (more than once) and conducted like a linebacker, manhandling the music as if it were a running back at the goal line. This worked sometimes.

American soprano Roberta Peters, now 65, sang operatic hits on both halves of the bill in a pleasing fashion, though at least some of the time she was noticeably amplified. In the “Cavatina” from “Don Pasquale,” “O Mio Bambino Caro,” “Musetta’s Waltz,” “The Merry Widow Waltz,” and “Vilia,” she displayed a slight waver and strain here and there, but overall negotiated the music with ease, rich tone and confident style.

Eleven-year-old violinist Howard Zhang whipped through the finale of the Wieniawski Second Concerto with clean and clear technique and personable flair.

Clark’s own “Canticle and Christmas Dances,” for soprano, orchestra and choir, proved a solid offering in a syrupy and rugged mainstream manner, but its ending, of Mahlerian proportions in a 12-minute piece, was laughable.

Clark’s conducting could be heavy-handed, as in his rendering of the “Thunder and Lightning” polka as college fight song, yet he was efficient enough in handling the large forces and splashy pieces. He found much of the grace and charm in the Overture to “Die Fledermaus.”

The William Hall Chorale executed its duties in carols, the “Hallelujah Chorus” and elsewhere with no-nonsense craftsmanship. The Crescenta Valley High School A Cappella Choir made an appearance.

The orchestra played as it always does, like a talented, part-time ensemble of freelancers. But did one detect, under new concertmaster Sidney Weiss, a stronger discipline and shinier tone in the violins?