The Pacific Symphony’s choice of Alexander Shelley as its next Music Director has been a solid so far. He has crafted compelling programs. He’s made concise yet informative pre-performance comments from the podium. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s young, dashing, personable, and therefore a marketing department’s dream.
Most importantly, he’s shown the capacity for conducting interesting, even persuasive interpretations of both warhorses and contemporary works. His Beethoven 5th last May had, in the words of the esteemed Timothy Mangan, “polish and pizzazz . . . energy and certainty.” (I was there too, and I concur). More recently, his concert which opened the season, headlined by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, showed a penchant for emphasizing the work’s colorfulness without exaggerating it.
So I looked forward to last weekend’s performances of Stravinsky’s complete Firebird score, the Korngold Violin Concerto, and Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. On paper, the collection of splashy pieces by composers with strong ties to Southern California looked like a winner.
Alas, the reality proved to be a mixed bag.
Mr. Shelley’s approach to Firebird was surprisingly subdued. Sometimes it worked. He gave the orchestra room to breathe in the slower, airier moments such as the Pas de Deux (The Firebird’s Pleading) and the Berceuse. Principal players had multiple chances to strut their stuff, with Benjamin Smolen (Flute) and Rose Corrigan (Bassoon) having particularly beautiful phrasing.
But the biggest moments — the Infernal Dance and the Finale — were dialed down, with conductor and orchestra straining against each other and the brass being notably leashed. Moreover, tempi and dynamics were both kept within a relatively narrow band throughout. The whole thing felt hemmed in.
A contributing reason was undoubtedly the video projected above the stage. This wasn’t abstract eye candy, or even a re-interpretation a la Fantasia 2000. It was a animated rendition of The Firebird plot, complete with characters doing ballet pirouettes and ronds de jambe. No click track was apparent, and Mr. Shelley wasn’t staring up at the screen; however, he necessarily had to match the video’s pacing, I bet that he’d make different tempo choices if he weren’t tethered to the on-screen machinations.
As it turns out, the decision by Mr. Shelley and the Pacific Symphony to have this video was not a purely artistic choice but a perceived need to give the audience a narrative crutch. As an email from the orchestra explained:
The Firebird contains many stretches of pantomime music – gestures built around atmosphere, timing and physical intent. These passages are often carried out by small, abstract movements in live ballet and will be expressed visually on screen. While they can feel opaque to audience members who have not seen the choreography, they create an audio-visual element that elevates the concert, which Shelley feels is a vitally important component of the experience.
Um . . . the full ballet score is, in fact, often performed in concert without any visuals (live dancers, video, or anything else). Saying that they’re “a vitally important component of the experience” seems like a stretch at best or pandering at worst. It’s as if the Orange County listeners wouldn’t be able to appreciate Stravinsky’s music without a cartoon, and I wish they would’ve given the Segerstrom audience more credit.
Furthermore, even if the audience “needed” visuals, they certainly deserved better than what they were given. During the performance, I thought the animation unfortunately looked like it repurposed graphics from a circa 2000 budget-bin video game. According to the PSO website, the images by Fowler Amusement “leveraged cutting-edge gaming technology, most notably Unreal Engine, to support efficiency and visual precision” [all emphases mine], so I wasn’t far from the truth. It looked far from cutting edge, but it definitely looked like they prioritized efficiency over effectiveness.
I did my best to ignore it all. From my seat in the orchestra section, I could. Those sitting in the balconies would have had more difficulty.
Korngold’s Violin Concerto was based on themes specifically written for Hollywood film soundtracks. Surprisingly, neither Aubree Oliverson, the soloist, nor Mr. Shelley mentioned as much in their comments from the stage, yet thankfully, no one thought visuals were needed for it.
The 27-year old Colburn-trained violinist demonstrated impeccable technique and a clean tone. Her approach was direct, and her playing was smooth to a fault: it would’ve benefited from more bite in some moments and more rubato in others. Mr. Shelley supported her throughout in a similarly straight-forward manner, keeping the orchestra understated, so much that I wish the 2nd movement harp part was given more prominence and that lower strings and winds had more edge in the 3rd movement.
In the end, it still worked. The performance brought most in the audience to their collective feet, and the soloist rewarded them with her own playful arrangement of Menuhin Caprice by Mark O’Connor as an encore. It was the most flamboyantly she played the whole night.
Short Ride in a Fast Machine, is a pocket-sized bit of quintessential Adams, constantly churning, unabashedly bright and punchy. As such, the curtain raiser was the perfect amuse bouche to the other extroverted works on the program. Mr. Shelley took it middle of the road in every way, moderate in speed and dynamics. When it was done, he asked the trumpets to stand for a well-deserved ovation.
Random other thoughts:
- Unlike some conductors performing the complete Firebird score (*cough* Gustavo Dudamel *cough cough*) who make a habit of inserting the trombone glissandi that Stravinsky added to some of the suites, Mr. Shelley stuck to the original score and kept them out. Thank goodness.
- During his comments from the stage, Mr. Shelley mentioned that he first met Ms. Oliverson 10 years ago at the Aspen Festival when she was still a student and member of the orchestra. She had introduced herself to him and asked for his email address so she could stay in touch, a confident move which impressed him at the time.
- The printed program correctly listed the complete ballet as the work being performed, but the program notes a few pages later mistakenly mentioned the 1945 suite.
- Mr. Mangan’s review of this concert is HERE
Pacific Symphony: January 15, 2026; Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
Alexander Shelley, conductor
Aubree Oliverson, violin
Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Korngold: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete ballet)
RELATED POSTS
- REVIEW: Dudamel’s latest take on Stravinsky and Adams with LA Phil is a winner (Oct 7, 2025)
- LA Phil tuning up the programs they are taking on tour (part 2 of 3): Dudamel swings for the fences with “La mer” & “Firebird” (May 8, 2013)
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Photo credits: Reveille, Inc. for the Pacific Symphony
All is Yar 