MUSIC REVIEW : A Clash of Interpretations

COSTA MESA — A heroic struggle took place during Wednesday night’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. Unfortunately, the conflict did not seem to involve like minds grappling with musical concepts. Instead, a clash of interpretations thundered inside the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Conductor Carl St.Clair led the Pacific Symphony in a lush, Romantic reading, full of large dynamic gestures. His forces reveled in harmonic richness. They found a wealth of emotional portent. Flutist John Barcellona and principal clarinetist James Kanter contributed thoughtful solos.

On the other side, pianist Alain) Lefevre--who is featured on the Pacific Symphony’s recent recording of John Corigliano’s) Piano Concerto--apparently discovered little of the same evocative muse in the score, apart from an occasional opportunity for a portentous pause.

He offered a technical tour de force, plain and a little too simple, from the first tones, banged out in the bass, to the last. There were plenty of notes, doled out with biting exactness, and one could marvel over Lefevre’s adeptness, but the results lent cold contrast to his orchestral cohorts.

Sunnier works had graced the first half of the program.

Schubert’s gentle Symphony No. 5 in B-flat unfolded with touching refinement and attentive tunefulness. St.Clair chose very modest tempos, which permitted an amiable stroll, balanced and clear, in much of the composition, but which threatened to weigh down an otherwise stylish Menuetto.

With the ensemble almost doubled in size after the symphony, “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” by Richard Strauss, received a rhythmically coherent and boisterous run-through. Winds and percussion seized their many moments with gusto. Hornist John Reynolds) captured Till’s famous theme both in notes and puckish spirit.

The program was scheduled to be repeated Thursday night.