Giving Passions Free Rein

If the essence of Romantic music is the emotional contrast of light and dark, muscular and lyrical, then JoAnn Falletta’s Long Beach Symphony program Saturday at the Terrace Theater was Romanticism cubed. Never mind that the concerto brought us well into this century; this was gutsy, passionate stuff all, and not coincidentally a selection of splendid vehicles for a sleek orchestral machine.

As was the concerto for its equally accomplished protagonist. American violinist Robert McDuffie has long trod the repertorial road less traveled, and on this occasion he revived the Violin Concerto by film music legend Miklos Rozsa. Composed in the early 1950s under the considerable influence of Jascha Heifetz, the traditionally shaped piece has a sort of Prokofiev-goes-to-Hungary rhythmic bite and wry lyricism.

McDuffie worked with the score in front of him, though there was nothing underfelt or unprepared about his fluent performance. Technically unflappable and musically assured, McDuffie seemed to catch each episode in its best light with playing that was pure and clean in tone and forthright in sentiment.

Rozsa favored sharp orchestral punctuation to the soloist’s lines, and Falletta kept her orchestra well abreast of McDuffie with pertinent, accommodating accompaniment.

Falletta has been showing some interesting ideas about Tchaikovsky in recent seasons; Saturday it was a rethought and clarified Fifth Symphony. As unabashedly emotional as any--witness the luxuriant slow movement wallow--her approach is generally also a good deal more limber on its feet and almost transparent in texture.

Her Tchaikovsky seems tailored to the Long Beach Symphony, or maybe it is the other way around. At any rate, her orchestra had a bright, digital-era edge to its sound and appreciable verve. Clarinetist Gary Bovyer and French horn player Calvin Smith headed the cast of characterful wind soloists and the tight, flexible string playing would be the glory of many a full-time ensemble.

Falletta opened with a mercurial and vivacious romp through Berlioz’s overture “Le Corsaire.”