MUSIC REVIEW : AGREEABLE PREMIERE OF CONCERTO

SAN DIEGO —  However culturally minded the typical symphony patron may be, there is a part of his makeup that is pure Grinch when it comes to contemporary music. Unlike theater buffs who snap up a playwright’s latest offering like a fresh-baked cookie, or those inveterate art lovers who glory in the newest iconoclastic statement in stone or on canvas, the classical music buff need only hear the title of a new work to emit a reflexive “harrumph.”

With an avuncular nod to such audience sentiments, San Diego Symphony guest conductor Joseph Silverstein gave Roger Sessions’ 1977 Concerto for Orchestra a short pep talk from the podium Thursday evening at Symphony Hall. Having won the audience’s confidence with his ingratiating solos in the Haydn First Violin Concerto and Mozart’s Adagio and Rondo on the opening half of the program, the patrician conductor assured his listeners that the 15-minute opus they were about to hear in its West Coast premiere was so beautifully orchestrated that they could not help but enjoy it.

Silverstein also noted that the Boston Symphony, for which he served as concertmaster for over 20 years, had commissioned the work as part of its centennial celebrations. Indeed, his sincere conviction about the concerto and the confident drive with which his conducting propelled it made the performance a completely agreeable experience.

Sessions’ essay proved to be more craft than inner necessity--a busy but not terribly dense musical tapestry. Its earnest free counterpoint and flavoring of Bartokian percussion reflected the composer’s synthesis of European technique and Yankee optimism. The orchestra’s strong performance of the concerto, especially the suave woodwind and solid brass solos, helped sell the piece, although it could not compensate for the composer’s fatigue of invention about two-thirds of the way through. The audience response to the concerto was more than polite but less than effusive.

Silverstein took to the dual role of conductor and soloist in the Haydn and Mozart pieces with less authority than Andres Cardenes, the orchestra’s concertmaster, has exhibited on several recent occasions. Once Silverstein started his fellow instrumentalists, his entire concentration appeared to be focused on his own playing. His violin sound was sweet and well-focused, and he phrased with elegant facility. His only concession to Classical style, however, was choosing a flexible, lightweight timbre. In terms of articulation, his Haydn was all Mendelssohn. If his tempo in the Mozart E Major Adagio crept along at a stolid pace, he redeemed himself with a heavenly cantilena in the slow movement of the Haydn Violin Concerto.

For his postlude, Silverstein presided over a boisterous rendition of Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony (“Italian”). His conducting style appeared homespun and diagrammatic. While his approach turned the symphony into a jolly, enthusiastic romp, it begged for at least a veneer of refinement. Especially in the middle movements, the strings sounded edgy and out of focus. If they had paid any attention to the woodwinds in the finale, they would have picked up a complete primer on how to achieve that quintessential Mendelssohnian prestissimo arabesque.