Spring officially arrived earlier this week, and judging from Friday’s (March 26) San Diego Symphony program, the Summer Pops invited itself in while no one was looking. Yes, San Diego’s seasons are difficult to distinguish one from the other.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

^{Courtesy photo}

According to the program book, guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Peruvian-born Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony, was requested by the San Diego Symphony management to serve up this peppy George Gershwin with garnish offering.

The energetic, perpetually-smiling Harth-Bedoya complied with relish, keeping tempos spirited and the volume vibrant, an approach that was perfectly tailored to Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” and “An American in Paris.” I enjoyed this conductor’s relaxed but metrically steady approach to the “Cuban Overture” that allowed its layered Latin rhythms to bounce with saucy innuendo. And his take on “An American in Paris” had plenty of verve and spice, although this piece comes as close to fool-proof as any jazzy, Roaring Twenties postcard can.

By the time we were a few measures into raucous opening movement of Leonard Bernstein’s “Three Dance Episodes from On the Town,” I was ready to holler “uncle.” One of the problems—in addition to the choice of repertory—was Harth-Bedoya’s allowing the brass to regularly overbalance the strings. Occasionally I had to check to see if the strings were still moving their bows.

I suspect that our Fort Worth guest, however, was responsible for including Aaron Copland’s haunting, evocative “Quiet City,” the one reflective respite and welcome contrast to rest of the program. The local orchestra has never played this Copland gem before, and more’s the pity.

Although Copland is commonly associated with his wholesome, rural tone poems “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring,” the Brooklyn-born-and-bred Copland reveals more of his biography in “Quiet City,” an urban nocturne (Eric Bromberger’s wise coinage) that is alternately tense and brooding. Soloists from the San Diego Symphony, Principal English Horn Andrea Overturf and Prinicpal Trumpet Calvin Price, acquited themselves nobly, and Harth-Bedoya shaped the work with sensitive appreciation to its spare voicing and subtle shifts of mood.

It is rare that the English Horn performs front and center, as Overturf did for “Quiet City,” although the throaty, rich sonority of the instrument (really a bass oboe) is associated with some of the most celebrated orchestral solos, e.g. Sibelius’ “Swan of Tuonela” and the slow movement of Dvorak’s Symphony From the New World. In her melting solos, Overturf contrasted a supple, liquid sonority in her upper range with a broader, reedy color in the bass.

Price started and ended his solos off stage, slowly moving across the back of the Copley stage, increasing his volume and intensity as he moved. Had he been placed up front with the English Horn, his muscular timbre would have seriously over-balanced the ensemble. His most winning contributions were his bright, soaring flights, while his quieter playing in mid-range lacked a solid center.

Perhaps the next time the Symphony is tempted to grind out another “Appalachian Spring” or reprise Barber’s evergreen “Adagio for Strings,” the planners will choose Copland’s “Quiet City” instead.

The evening wound down with Robert Russell Bennett’s “Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture for Orchestra,” that splashy orchestral homage to Gershwin’s beloved opera. As I mentally checked off each hit song’s appearance in this steroid medley, I was wishing that Harth-Bedoya had been conducting one of the many contemporary music projects that stand out in his bio. Or perhaps a composition by a favorite Latin American composer. Or really just about anything save the final helping of Gershwin.

PRESS HERE for PROGRAM and BIOS