A joyous Pacific Symphony concert

A bright and versatile guest conductor, Paul Goodwin, led the Pacific Symphony in the first of its fourth pair of concerts of the season Wednesday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The boyish 48-year-old Briton presided over a happy mix of music by Juan Arriaga, Joaquin Rodrigo, Vivaldi and Handel, eliciting from the reduced (43 strong) orchestra stylish, precise and cohesive playing. The soloist was the American guitarist Sharon Isbin, who played Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” and Vivaldi’s Lute Concerto in D.

Well known as an opera conductor, Goodwin also specializes in early music -- he is an associate of the Academy of Ancient Music -- and music of the Baroque. He closed this performance with a brisk and bracing run-through of Handel’s “Water Music” Suite. Through bright and apprehensible tempos, clear musical textures, and superior and transparent instrumental playing, the overly familiar seemed newly minted. The orchestra responded enthusiastically to his spare but unmistakable leadership and the solo playing -- particularly from hornists Keith Popejoy and Mark Adams -- emerged at once gutsy, heroic and restrained.

At the beginning of the evening, Goodwin led a most persuasive and resonant account of Arriaga’s joyous overture to “Los Esclavos Felices,” written when the composer was just 13. Guitarist Isbin, virtuosic but understated, allowed Rodrigo’s ubiquitous “Concierto” and Vivaldi’s brief Concerto in D to speak for themselves, using her broad dynamic range skillfully in both works. She rewarded the audience’s approbation with two short solo encores, one by Francisco Tarrega, the other by Naomi Shepherd.