Pacific Symphony’s Mozart, Strausses

The elder Johann Strauss entered the world 13 years after Mozart left it, and German Richard Strauss was born 60 years after that, but all were represented in the Pacific Symphony concert entitled “Mozart in Vienna,” Saturday night at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Still, the program balanced well, even if the reasoning behind its appellation did not.

Music Director Carl St.Clair took the opportunity, provided by an audience of some 8,000, to work in a music-appreciation lesson as introduction to R. Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche.” Then he led his band through the merry chase with disciplined balance and an infectious sense of spontaneity.

The tone-poem’s rich blends gave brass and percussion a field day--which they seized with swaggering evocativeness kicked off by James Taylor’s opening horn passage. Phil Evans on E-flat clarinet--not D clarinet, as mentioned in St.Clair’s preface--and assistant concertmaster Jeanne Evans conveyed a sense of mischief in their solos.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19, in F, K. 459--with Christopher O’Riley as protagonist--received an amiable and unmemorable performance, full of fluid and graceful pianism and opera buffa-style dialogue between forces. However, St.Clair conducted a more expansive interpretation of the score--in which the orchestra can often be an equal partner to the pianist--than O’Riley’s, resulting in heavy-handed accompaniment to miniature pleasantries.

The Austrian Strausses--whose waltzes, polkas and marches have been much heard this season--found an ally in St.Clair, who prompted enough give-and-take, and sufficient buoyancy, to conjure images of opulent ballrooms, particularly in Johann Jr.’s “Emperor” waltz.