USC Symphony Director Bows

During the long and distinguished tenure of Daniel Lewis as its music director, the USC Symphony built an enviable reputation for consistency, spirit and polish. That reputation seems in no danger, although Jung-Ho Pak’s debut Friday at Bovard Auditorium as the orchestra’s new music director began under the temporary pall of oppressively wheezing fans.

Working without a baton, Pak appears to be a reassuring and inspiring figure on the podium. His obviously well-drilled charges responded to his ministrations with enthusiasm and purpose across a varied and exposing program.

Pak concentrated on sustaining dancing energies within clearly defined structures in Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. He allowed the big tune in the Allegretto to swamp any hint of interior counter-melody but otherwise led a burnished account of the popular piece, clear in texture without sacrificing any sonic opulence his players boldly projected. The multifaceted Adagio proved particularly moving in his cogently integrated interpretation.

“Gazebo Dances,” a substantial early piece by John Corigliano in the Samuel Barber mold, offered unhackneyed opportunities for orchestral display, though with the extra brass and percussion the outer movements became virtually band music, the string sound all but disappearing under the onslaught.

By way of classical contrast, Pak and a much-reduced orchestra opened with crisp, clean, stylistically bland efforts in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3, supporting the gleaming, handsome playing of soloist Andrew Pelletier, a USC graduate student who seems capable of anything on his instrument, including the unlikely introduction of multiphonics in his cadenza.

* The concert was taped for broadcast Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. on KUSC-FM (91.5).