Inspiring Mozart by Pasadena Symphony

On the surface, a concert dubbed “Mozart by Moonlight” might smack of an alliterative marketing ploy, another attempt to present classical music as lifestyle accessory. But even a skeptic could hardly balk at the way the pieces fit together when the Pasadena Symphony performed an all-Mozart program Saturday night at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino.

Mozart was in good, even inspired, hands here. As for the lunar aspect, a full moon shone on one of the more opulent public gardens around. All told, it was quite picture-perfect, enough so that we could forgive the inherent trade-off of outdoor concerts--acoustics for ambience. The truth remains that well-rendered Mozart plays well anywhere, indoor and out, whatever the season. In this special between-season concert, conductor Jorge Mester led his impressive orchestra through three Mozart works, programmed in chronological order and surveying varying moods.

The evening began with the enlightened frivolity of the Sinfonia from the “Posthorn” Serenade, a witty but never flip sendup of prevailing 18th century musical lingo. Pianist Howard Shelley easily took command of the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, emerging as a clean purveyor of line and dramatic arc. Despite the minor mode, the work is more stately than somber, and the second movement supplies a gentle, bright-spirited anchor, on which Shelley softly intoned the melodic lines.

In the second half, Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E flat, if lesser known than others among his late symphonies, is a deceptively genteel work, and was given a balanced and lucid reading by the orchestra. By the time of the familiar propulsive jaunt to the finish in the last movement, the moon was in full blossom and all seemed momentarily right with the world.