Poetic Piano and Visuals Send ‘Planets’ Program Into Orbit

The Pacific Symphony concert Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater was called “The Planets” after the Holst score that dominated the second half of the program. But the program really was about space and time.

Space because “The Planets” was accompanied by a Mark Hatch Productions film incorporating NASA images and computer graphics; time in the poetic playing of Van Cliburn silver medalist Antonio Pompa-Baldi in Grieg’s Concerto in A minor.

Pompa-Baldi knew how to suspend time, letting a phrase hover and expand in poised inner stillness.

The 26-year-old pianist relied on warmth, exquisite taste and unassertive but arresting technique to make the case for Grieg and, incidentally, to justify his high standing in the recent Cliburn competition.

His collaboration with conductor Carl St.Clair was particularly sympathetic and tight. He played Moszkowski’s Etude in F, Opus 72, No. 6 as his single encore.

Reactions to the music-film version of “The Planets” came in stages. First, a dislocation set in. Holst was thinking in astrological terms (“Mars, the Bringer of War”; “Venus, the Bringer of Peace”). NASA had reality on its mind.

Once past its cloud cover, Venus was just another hot rock, not an erotic influence.

Yet, the visuals soon generated their own mythos and magic, particularly when the filmmaker’s imagination flew freely in “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.”

St.Clair’s efforts at first faded into the background (the visual dominates the aural), but he led a magisterial performance.

The program ended in a rousing blaze of fireworks accompanying John Williams’ title music from “Star Wars.”