Mester Takes a Lyrical Route

One of the joys of a Pasadena Symphony program is encountering familiar friends in fresh relationships. Music director Jorge Mester led an engaging and illuminating agenda of instrumental lyricism Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

It is possible to play Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto toward the dark side, but difficult to do so after the cheery banalities of Hugo Alfven’s Swedish Rhapsody No. 1. In any case, restraint and cool makes its central mysteries more poignant than does angst and heat.

That was the tack taken by Mester and his soloist, Seung-Un Ha. The pianist brought clarity and light to her assignment, and no small measure of poise and affection. Mester and his Pasadenans provided pointed detailing, though occasionally swamping Ha’s slender sound.

The afterglow of this bright and energetic Bartok seemed to give Brahms’ Third Symphony uncommon linear definition. Mester’s Brahms was light on its feet, dancing with natural elegance and zest. He let the opening rhapsody romp appreciably, but appeared most interested in its passages of hushed shimmer.

Principal horn Richard Todd and principal clarinet Emily Bernstein delivered particularly distinguished work, supple and eloquent in the Alfven and the Brahms.