Pacific Symphony in Solid Baroque Pops

Now in his fifth decade on the podium, violinist-conductor Joseph Silverstein continues to serve the cause of music. Wednesday night, as guest conductor and soloist with the Pacific Symphony, he served by leading a Baroque pops program of concertos by Bach and Vivaldi.

A festive audience in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa received these familiar works--the “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3 and E-major Violin Concerto, and “The Four Seasons”--cheeringly, while Silverstein and 26 members of the orchestra produced careful contrasts and solid, energetic playing in all the movements.

Another leader might have probed deeper and found more character in each of these 18 items, but as far as he went, Silverstein gave honest and untroubled accounts of all this music.

Without strain or angst, the 65-year-old violinist--joining 10 colleagues in the Third “Brandenburg” and the full chamber complement in the other pieces--proved again a straightforward interpreter. He brought color and feeling to the slow movements--even to the point of becoming difficult to follow--and gaiety to the quick ones.

His colleagues met his standard of buoyancy.

Clarity and the kind of instrumental transparency one has come to expect in this music was another matter. Whether just more than two dozen or just under one, the players regularly achieved a muddiness in textures that the best orchestral playing in the 1990s has now left behind.

Ultimately, the Pacific Symphony contingent didn’t irritate, but it also fell short of epiphanies.