More Fizzle Than Sizzle During Pops

SAN DIEGO —  Wednesday’s San Diego Symphony concert was billed as “sizzling soloists,” but at the damp SummerPops site on San Diego Bay, there was more fizzle than sizzle. Steven Mayer bumbled his way through Mozart’s seemingly indestructible C Major Piano Concerto, K. 467, and, despite the earnest efforts of podium guest Jack Everly, principal conductor of the American Ballet Theatre, the orchestra’s scrappy ensemble displayed telltale signs of inadequate rehearsal.

Fortunately, a soupcon of sizzle returned to the pops stage just before the final curtain of fireworks fell. Principal flute Damian Bursill-Hall served up a sleek, sexy rendition of Francois Borne’s “Fantasie Brillante” on themes from Bizet’s opera “Carmen,” and Isabella Lippi let the creative sparks fly in the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s D Major Violin Concerto.

Why the talented Lippi was limited to a single movement of her concerto and Mayer was allowed to play all three movements of his Mozart concerto is a mystery. Lippi, an undergraduate student at USC who has won a slew of U.S competitions, brought panache, bravura technique and a beautifully focused tone to the Tchaikovsky. Mayer, however, gave an uninspired, rhythmically erratic facsimile of the familiar Mozart concerto. His cadenzas were insipid, and, at times, Mayer appeared to be sight reading the concerto. (Yes, he was using music.)

When Mayer performed Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini” last season with the SummerPops, he displayed many of the same technical problems. Who keeps inviting this clown back?

Borne’s “Carmen” showpiece borders on sheer camp with its dizzy variations for the solo flute, but Bursill-Hall’s secure technique and supple phrasing gave the piece optimal dignity. And the sensuous buzz of his lower range imbued the languorous themes with stylish allure.

Ironically, the orchestra was as its best providing a colorfully detailed accompaniment to the Mozart Piano Concerto. Everly and the orchestra projected a stylish, neatly detailed understanding of the Mozart despite the soloist’s shortcomings. Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Overture to his 1939 opera “Colas Breugnon” opened the concert with brassy fervor, and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No. 1, Op. 46, sounded equally sunny. Beethoven’s “Egmont” Overture, on the other hand, bordered on the perfunctory.

Everly returns to Embarcadero Marina Park South tonight and Saturday to lead a Cole P orter salute with the orchestra and members of the San Diego Master Chorale.