Music and Dance Reviews : Season Finale by Pasadena Symphony

There was a lot of obvious emotion on the Pasadena Civic Auditorium stage, at the end of the Pasadena Symphony concert Saturday evening. But the performance of Brahms’ autumnal Fourth Symphony, with which music director Jorge Mester closed his sixth season with the orchestra, only intermittently communicated as much.

Mester stressed big contrasts in dynamics and tempo, paradoxically underscoring the key structural points at the price of some real discontinuity. This was not--particularly in the variations and first movement--a seamless, organic Fourth, and many of the calculated stillnesses sounded merely enervated.

The violins and woodwinds had some uncharacteristic squally patches in the opening movement, but the orchestra settled into well-meshed, supple playing in the Andante. A bright, explosive Allegro giocoso proved the best part of this inconsistent effort.

Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto was the centerpiece of the program, artistically as well as chronologically. Joseph Kalichstein brought great vim, a scattering of clinkers and brittle, sharply accented sound to the challenge. He had all the barbaro elements well in hand, in fiercely pointed phrasing, and extended the steely brilliance through the more introspective passages.

Mester and company backed him with generally well-balanced, pertinent accompaniment. The orchestral solos were as lively as Kalichstein’s, and the whole vital in a rough, spontaneous way.

Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” opened the evening with mellow charm. Louise DiTullio supplied fluid, evocative flute solos.