MUSIC REVIEW : REVIVED ORCHESTRA WAS FIT AS A FIDDLE

SAN DIEGO — Wednesday night’s inaugural Summer Pops concert was preceded by an abnormal level of apprehension. The hastily put-together nine-week series was undertaken by the musicians themselves on a shoestring budget with a minuscule staff. It was, as resident pops conductor Matthew Garbutt said in his nervous introductory speech, “The summer season that almost wasn’t.”

Fortunately, it took only a couple of pieces to establish not only that the pops orchestra was back in fine form, but that the new shell and sound system significantly improved the musical product. Though it is possible that the past year’s dearth of orchestral music has predisposed the critic’s ear, it was an evening of evident musical delight.

Under Garbutt’s secure baton, the 76-piece orchestra played with admirable rhythmic precision, clear focus and precise intonation. A visitor innocent of this city’s winter of symphonic discontent would have been surprised to learn that the orchestra members have not been playing together regularly since September.

Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Rimsky-Korsakov’s ubiquitous “Capriccio Espagnol” were the memorable offerings of the concert’s opening half, which Garbutt wisely devoted to solid light classical works.

The clarion brass fanfares and snappy woodwind riffs in the Shostakovich, as well as the elegant “Capriccio” cadenzas by concertmaster Egor Groupman, clarinetist David Peck and cellist Marcia Zeavin demonstrated that the orchestra still has its chops. Garbutt even indulged in a few fleeting pianissimos in Johann Strauss’ “Voices of Spring” waltz.

In predictable pops fashion, much of the program’s second half was devoted to medleys from Richard Rodgers musicals, but it should be noted that the players actually put their hearts into playing those mind-numbing, kitsch waltzes. Upbeat arrangements of more sophisticated pops standards, “I Got Rhythm” and “Begin the Beguine,” rescued the program from the schmaltz that not even Muzak could demean.

The pops’ new synthetic canvas shell is the most significant improvement since the summer series moved to Hospitality Point in 1983. By focusing the sound of the orchestra and projecting it to the audience, the sound system needed only to complement the live sound, a far better acoustical equation than any previous setup provided.

In earlier seasons, attending the pops was more like listening to a movie sound track, with a stage of uniformed players executing the instrumental equivalent of lip-sync.

If this auspicious inaugural performance by the Summer Pops is a portent, this summer should be sweet at Hospitality Point.