MUSIC REVIEWS : Mester Leads Pasadena Symphony

The music of Shostakovich has been much with us this season, in notable interpretations and noble performances. Add to the list Jorge Mester and the Pasadena Symphony, who capped a long, strong program at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium Saturday with Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony.

The Sixth is not one of the composer’s more oppressive scores, nor one of his more refined. It thumps and roars along in a gloriously gaudy frenzy, festooned with characteristically sardonic solos. Even the slow opening movement makes its points blatantly.

Mester approached it without reservation or equivocation. He maintained controlled, tidy ensemble, but otherwise let the music and musicians take the path of least resistance--in this case, headlong bravura.

The orchestra responded brilliantly, with clean, crisp sound from all sections. The multifarious solos all received eager, deft playing, in a bright, high-impact performance.

Contrasting strongly with the flamboyant, even crass, fury of the Shostakovich was Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, as nobly, elegantly and highly idiosyncratically played by Ida Haendel.

The 63-year-old Polish violinist gave a deliberately paced, lofty reading of the first two movements, turning to the finale with real--though decorous--zest. She integrated cadenzas by Kreisler and Joachim into a convincing architecture that revealed a mind at work, as well as fleet, accurate fingers and bow.

Haendel’s tone could sound stuffy on the lower strings, but sang sweetly and clearly elsewhere. Mester kept a reduced orchestra alert and dynamically deferential.

The program began with a sturdy account of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” Overture, uncomplicated by dramatic probing or characterization.