TV REVIEW : ‘Concerto!’ Instructs and Pleases

“Concerto!,” six hourlong programs on the Learning Channel, beginning tonight at 10 (with marathon reprises on Saturday and Sunday), at first seems nothing more than an extended promo for RCA Victor, spotlighting artists on whom the giant audio-video label is staking its current fortunes. But that would be too facile a dismissal.

Likewise, the series’ “educational” aspect defies pat criticism, since conflicting messages are sent out by its principal talking presences: Dudley Moore, whose putatively light touch is the series’ hook for neophytes, while Michael Tilson Thomas, who also conducts the London Symphony in each of the six concertos discussed, rehearsed and performed, is there to ponder deeper matters.

Moore is more a turnoff than welcoming host: perplexed by the music (his classical training notwithstanding), imposing himself when his participation is least required, often with lumpishly ironic put-downs that a strong producer would have deleted.

Tilson Thomas, however, charms and enlightens. With swift, fluent verbal strokes, illustrations at the piano or in rehearsal conversation, he interacts positively with his soloists while honoring the intelligence of viewers, be they classical tyros or veterans.

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Tonight’s opening segment, devoted to Mozart’s Concerto for flute and harp, is distinguished by the bubbling personality and elegant virtuosity of harpist Marisa Robles (the flutist is James Galway). But the most consistently watchable programs are those to be aired on Wednesday at 10 p.m. and Friday at 9.

The former has cellist Stephen Isserlis and Tilson Thomas in a chattily illuminating, unself-conscious demonstration of the give and take of concerto performance, the specific work being Saint-Saens’ A-minor Concerto.

Friday’s program--whose talk consists mainly of Tilson Thomas trying to persuade a dubious Moore that 20th-Century music might not be a total loss--centers on the hugely gifted young Japanese violinist Kyoko Takezawa and her incendiary interpretation of Bartok’s Second Concerto.

The six individually packaged RCA videos (VHS cassette and Laserdisc that comprise “Concerto!” will be available in retail outlets this week, while the finished musical performances (no talk, which means you’re spared Moore but bereft of Tilson Thomas) are on RCA CDs.

The remaining works in the series are Beethoven’s C-major Piano Concerto, primly played by Alicia de Larrocha; a stylish collaboration by soloist Richard Stoltzman and Tilson Thomas on the Copland Clarinet Concerto, and a bland Rachmaninoff Second Concerto from pianist Barry Douglas.