Happy ‘Birth’ Day as S.D. Symphony Regains Voice

After a 28-month period of enforced silence caused by financial instability, the San Diego Symphony came back Friday night. A new management team and a new board of directors are moving the orchestra in the direction of fiscal responsibility and modest growth.

For the comeback, artistic director/conductor Jung-Ho Pak (former San Diego assistant conductor) led the orchestra in a very exposing Tchaikovsky program--the first of three matching performances in an eight-program pops summer series scheduled through Sept. 12--at the end of Navy Pier, downtown.

It was a happy occasion, and the nearly 2,700 folks who came to hear the Violin Concerto, the “1812” Overture, the Cossack Dance from “Mazeppa,” the Waltz from “Eugene Onegin” and three excerpts from “Nutcracker” seemed satisfied--especially after the scheduled encore of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” was accompanied with fireworks over San Diego Bay.

The 70-piece orchestra, more than half of whom, according to Pak, played in the S.D. Symphony’s last performance, in April 1996, performed well, like a serious ensemble, and in firm rapport with Pak’s admirably musical conducting. But this was not a “return,” the 36-year-old Pak said, by phone the next day.

“Don’t call this a reconstitution, a reconstruction or a regurgitation,” he insisted. “This was a birth.”

And indeed, newness seemed to mark the occasion. A tangible enthusiasm could be observed in the orchestra’s playing. The conducting had sweep, point--and no grandstanding. The playing suffered no rustiness or lack of spirit; orchestra and leader seemed comfortable with each other.

A giant television screen on the audience’s right gave added accents to the event--a number of performance films and still photos by California Ballet to accompany the dance pieces, and a brief, informative interview with soloist Sheryl Staples before the concerto. Also, photos of the composer and live shots of conductor Pak and the players and soloist.

Pak brought style and detail to the characteristic pieces, and assisted Staples solidly in the concerto. The California-born and -trained violinist, once concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony, recently associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and in the fall the new associate concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, gave a brilliant reading of the familiar showpiece.

She conquered its abundant virtuosic difficulties with aplomb, concentrated on its musical content and delivered all its facets without reticence. And through it all, she produced a tone of immediate beauty and mellow lyricism.

One caveat--amplification at the pier needs some further adjustment. With water on three sides and only a small shell to project the orchestra, balance and naturalness of sound both suffered.