Symphony Gains Sense of Direction

Brahms’ Third Symphony may be his most moody and enigmatic, but it allowed another new level of accomplishment by Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony to emerge Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. And the virtues revealed in this opening work remained constant through the three-part program.

St.Clair has been criticized in these quarters for lacking propulsion and directed goal-seeking in his conducting, but from the incisive, forceful first measures on, that was not true Wednesday. He was always going somewhere. If phrases weren’t ideally contoured and the aim wasn’t always true, the conductor still led a lean, dramatic and darkly urgent account of the work. One of his reliable strengths has been his sensitive collaborations with soloists. That was again evident as he accompanied Pascal Roge in Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto.

Roge is not a pianist who dramatizes his strengths and talents. Except for a rare pistol-shot ricochet off the keyboard at the end of a phrase, he tends to remain fixated, curved toward the instrument, all the action confined to hands and forearms. But the results were impressive and captivating, from the reflective, serious opening through its gossamer scherzo and the furious showoff tarantella finale.

St.Clair ended the program with a well-judged and balanced account of the Second Suite from Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe,” avoiding every bombastic pitfall.

The Pacific Symphony’s sound is getting better and better, more integrated and powerful.