MUSIC REVIEW : Clark, Pacific Illuminate Mahler, Accompany Leila Josefowicz, 11

Keith Clark, soon-to-be ex-music director of the Pacific Symphony, gave a first-rate interpretation of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 Wednesday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The music of Mahler has always been one of Clark’s strong suits, and those who left at intermission--after hearing 11-year-old violinist Leila Josefowicz--missed an impassioned, informed and informing reading of the composer’s work.

Clark’s vision of Mahler appears to be a post-war one--strong on design and structure, indifferent to the temptation to wallow in neurosis or indulge in schmaltz. Details consistently fell into place, with no slackening of tension and shape. Clark directed the musical flow, as appropriate, into little chamber-music eddies and grand statements.

Overall, the orchestra responded with alertness and commitment, but there was more than a fair share of glitches, the most glaring being premature entrances by back-desk violinists before the final big statement.

What Leila can offer an adult audience is open to question. As the soloist in Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2., she certainly commanded interest and respect, and she probably plays better than most, if not all, 11-year-olds. (For all one knows, she may play better than all 12, 13, 14 and 15-year-olds.) At this stage of her very young career, she shows strong technique and virtuosity, pitch accuracy, variety in sound and lots of promise.

Still, she did not present a fully formed vision of the music, nor did she seem to understand what she was playing. One can only wonder if it is to the benefit of her growth as a musician to present her to the public so early.

The audience seemed enthusiastic, although not everyone participated in the standing ovation that brought her back--with Clark--for Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumblebee” as an encore. Clark accompanied both works attentively.

The program opened with a lackluster reading of the Suite from Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”

Clark, incidentally, was presented after the intermission with a resolution by the Orange County Board of Supervisors declaring Wednesday and Thursday “Keith Clark Days” in Orange County.