Rostropovich, at His Ease, Dazzles Audience

Mstislav Rostropovich wears his legend lightly. Not that there was any doubt that he was the main attraction, playing two concertos with Jorge Mester and the Pasadena Symphony Friday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. The house was nearly full and the ovations were standing, of course, and adulatory.

But there is a naturalness to the cellist’s presence, an extroverted immediacy that embraces an audience rather than holding it off at formal length. This was a midpoint stop on his “Concerto Gala” tour, but it was clear that music-making and not celebrity remains the impetus for the 73-year-old cellist-conductor.

The naturalness and lightness extended to his playing. Rostropovich has a way of leaning back and letting the instrument seem to do all the work. His passagework in Haydn’s Concerto in C was all feathery bounce; in Saint-Saens’ A-minor Concerto it purled smoothly. Occasionally it was light to the point of inarticulate rustle, but whether digging in for gruff explosions or soaring in warm cantilena, Rostropovich’s playing never seemed effortful.

Astonishing, yes. But more so in the grace of expressive simplicity than in technical dazzle. Direct eloquence failed him only in Benjamin Britten’s odd little cadenzas for the Haydn Concerto. They are a testament to the progressive side of tradition, rather than the sometimes regressive demand of period style, and Rostropovich’s hesitations made them sound like uncertain intruders.

Purists might also quibble over the elaboration of Rostropovich’s encore, the Sarabande from Bach’s D-minor Cello Suite. But in the experience of it, the personal integrity of the cellist’s interpretation was overwhelming, a vast but cohesive summation of longing and resolution that left the ovation-primed audience in rapt stillness at the end.

Mester and the Pasadenans supported the guest’s wide dynamic scope with carefully scaled sound. It takes a very assured and focused ensemble to maintain tone and point at the softest levels as this band did so beautifully. At the beginning of the Haydn concerto, soloist and accompanists were not together, but they rallied quickly and delivered a performance sounding not at all the result of a very brief acquaintance. The minuet in the middle of the Saint-Saens proved particularly sweetly balanced.

The orchestra’s independent contributions meshed nicely with the concertos, although they were originally scheduled for the second concert of its own season, three weeks ago in Pasadena. Mester opened with Mozart’s engaging little Symphony in G, No. 32, in a lithe, well-contrasted reading.

He began the second half with a shapely, energized account of Schubert’s neglected Symphony in D, No. 3. It had high spirits and lyric charm, lit throughout by a bevy of characterful woodwind solos.