By Lyn Bronson

The stormy weather happened to be outside Sunset Center Monday evening, January 19, as the Monterey County Symphony under the direction of Clark Suttle presented its third concert of the season.

Inside the hall there was relative calm as soloist Glenn Dicterow lead us through a rather placid and uninvolved reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Technically there was little to fault, for he obviously has the violinistic skills needed to surmount the Concerto’s difficulties, and his intonation was fine, especially in the difficult harmonics.

But what was lacking was the soaring conviction of inevitable phrasing that often convinces a listener that the performance they are hearing represents the only way to play the work. In this concerto the violin part often decorates melodies in a remarkable way, but in this performance it somehow missed. In the slow movement Dicterow produced some fine playing, but in the final movement which can be an inspiring romp to its conclusion, it lacked energy and drive and ended up like a glass of stale beer. And the audience knew it, for there was no standing ovation, but instead rather polite applause.

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