Compare, Contrast With Pasadena Symphony

The program of the Pasadena Symphony’s concert Saturday night at the Civic Auditorium could be broken into two distinct parts: non-razzle-dazzle and razzle-dazzle.

The first half featured two substantial symphonies from the 1930s--Roy Harris’ Third and Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler”--in a typically provocative pairing from conductor Jorge Mester. But then the soloist turned up and he was a pianist and he was Russian and he wanted to play--yup--the Third Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff.

Which is not to say that Dmitri Ratser didn’t deserve his instantaneous standing ovation at the end. The pianist actually earned it the hard way, not by pounding the keyboard into submission but by striving for clarity and resisting the inevitable excesses. His phrasing was pointed, his octaves crisp, his lyricism mostly dry-eyed. The gobs of notes were crystalline, not blurry. He could thunder impressively, but this occurred rarely, and his voicings were careful when he did. Mester and the orchestra supported robustly while largely managing to keep out of Ratser’s way.

The rugged contrapuntalism of Harris’ Third Symphony made for an ascetic opening. Mester drew its lines firmly, shaped its course inexorably. The conductor was at once decisive (he always takes a stance on tempos) and incisive, yet never heavy-handed. Despite a couple of unfinished edges, the orchestra offered a proficient and characteristically committed reading.

Hindemith’s more ornamental contrapuntalism contrasted nicely, like cathedral stained glass to Harris’ brawn. Here, Mester kept things floating, delicate and fleet, the music’s busyness rendered intricate, louds and softs distinctively adhered to. The strings played with vibrancy, the brass with steely force. For this oft-neglected work, they all made a case, which is ultimately a much more satisfying experience than the rehash of a warhorse.