MUSIC REVIEW : Soloist Was Worth the Uninspiring Wait

LA JOLLA — Contrary to customary programming protocol, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra placed guest soloist Bella Davidovich at the conclusion of its Monday evening concert at Sherwood Auditorium. Keyboard lovers who came to hear the esteemed Soviet pianist had to pay their penance by listening to Beethoven’s Second Symphony and Elgar’s Serenade for Strings before they were allowed to hear Davidovich solo in the Mendelssohn First Piano Concerto. It proved an uninspiring wait for the decidedly modest concerto.

Davidovich redeemed the evening, however, with her elegant yet passionate playing, fashioning a mature interpretation of Mendelssohn’s exuberant, youthful opus.

Every phrase bore her trademark: an apparently effortless technique, a supple, seamless legato and a solid attack that never allowed a harsh tone to escape from her instrument. Her phrasing breathed with the graceful flexibility of a seasoned performer, and her touch in the slow movement was positively melting.

If there was little profundity to be plumbed in the finale, she treated its frivolous rondo theme with far greater finesse than did the orchestra, which reiterated it with clangorous abandon. It was evident that the local chamber ensemble wished to honor its guest with a sympathetic accompaniment, but intention clearly triumphed over realization.

In the Beethoven symphony, music director Donald Barra’s orchestra achieved a focus and sense of ensemble that has been rare for that group. Though Barra crafted clear-cut contrasts between the movements, within each movement his interpretive ideas remained enervatingly static. His notion of the Scherzo was less than playful, and his concluding movement had speed but little sense of triumph.