MUSIC REVIEW : Is the S.D. Symphony as Good as Best? On Occasion the Answer Can Be a Yes

SAN DIEGO —  When musically literate folk from other parts of the country inquire about the caliber of the San Diego Symphony, no easy answer leaps to mind.

On the one hand, inherent civic pride would prompt a rosy depiction of a robust musical organization just waiting to be discovered by the influential music critics of the major news magazines.

On the other hand, an honest comparison with some of the visiting orchestras that have played in San Diego in recent years instantly dispels this shallow boosterism.

Will the San Diego Symphony ever attain the brilliant ensemble and rich tonal palette of the Chicago Symphony under Solti? Will the local orchestra ever approach the opulent, massive string sound of the Moscow State Symphony that played in Civic Theatre earlier this month?

Some might dismiss these comparisons as foolish speculation, not unlike wondering whether a used Volkswagen might aspire to become a Mercedes-Benz. There are moments, however, when the San Diego Symphony rises to heady levels of performance, and these moments provide a realistic basis for an optimistic prognosis of the orchestra’s future--barring any number of non-musical obstacles, of course.

Perhaps the challenge of Anton Webern’s densely contrapuntal Passacaglia, Op. 1, and guest conductor Bernhard Klee’s devotion to this school of music brought out the best in the orchestra Friday night at Symphony Hall.

In unleashing the work’s passionate rhetoric, no linear clarity was sacrificed, and Klee elicited from the players a resplendent kaleidoscope of shimmering brief solos.

To be sure, this insightful, sophisticated interpretation could not have been turned out by a provincial band. It should be noted that this orchestra has displayed no small affinity to the symphonic repertory of this century. One thinks immediately of last season’s splendid Shostakovich Fifth Symphony under Maxim Shostakovich. Even years ago, the orchestra was at its best playing early Bartok under then music director Peter Eros.

If the orchestra did not muster the same intensity for Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration,” which followed the Passacaglia, the composer must share some of the blame. While both works call for a large, effulgent orchestration, Strauss was clearly more parsimonious in spinning out his musical ideas. “Lots of empty calories,” was a colleague’s muttered comment at the expansive tone poem’s final cadence.

Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with soloist Eugene Istomin opened the concert on an equivocal note. The patrician pianist lavished his attention on all of the concerto’s demanding components. For the cadenzas he unleashed a blaze of virtuosity; for the middle movement he provided floating melodies and well-turned flourishes. His own Steinway added a brilliant clarity to the right-hand figuration.

Yet Istomin revealed a certain detachment from the turbulence just below the surface of this C Minor Concerto, a key that Beethoven chose for his deepest soul-searching. It was excellent playing and sure articulation, but not a profound probing of the concerto.