A Pristine Farewell by Slatkin

Leonard Slatkin led the St. Louis Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for the second--and final--time in eight years, continuing a farewell tour capping his 17 years as music director of the orchestra.

With the exception of the substitution of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, Thursday’s program, which also included Claude Baker’s “Whispers and Echoes” and Haydn’s Symphony No. 70, was the same offered the previous evening at L.A.’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

In the symphony by Beethoven, as throughout the concert, Slatkin held to his stance as a purist--always taking the side of clarity and focus. He allowed passion to emerge from his disciplined group as if the emotional content were drawn from the musical structure itself.

With obvious depth of thought and precision, Slatkin held to strict tempos, demanding minutely etched detail within clear boundaries. He pinpointed directions and contained dynamic power until seemingly forced to unleash it. He insisted on rhythmic distinction and pristine balance.

Slatkin never permitted a relaxed, easy sound. Even in the final movement, a joyful romp in other hands, he led an exacting brio style, right down to the clipped definition of phrase endings. As a result, the work closed not with revelry, but with a show of orchestral might and a statement of triumph.

Slatkin led a bracing performance of Glinka’s Overture to “Russlan and Ludmilla” as the single encore.