Music : Violinist Oleh Krysa Shines in Berg

Ukrainian violinist Oleh Krysa made a triumphant Southern California debut with the Long Beach Symphony on Saturday night.

Substituting for an ill Young Uck Kim, Krysa played Alban Berg’s Concerto with such generosity of emotion and sweet passion that the composer’s dedication to 18-year-old Manon Gropius--”To the memory of an angel”--made perfect sense.

Meanwhile, performances by the symphony and music director JoAnn Falletta of Joaquin Turina’s “Danzas Fantasticas” and Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” were so fresh and brilliant that the latter, concluding the evening, received a standing ovation.

It was Krysa, however, making his first U.S. appearance west of Las Vegas, who stole the show.

A student and protege of David Oistrakh, a champion of modern music (his recording of two Manfred Schnittke violin concertos recently appeared on the BIS label), and active in New York City’s music life where he teaches at the Ukrainian Institute and at the Manhattan School of Music, the tall, professorial Krysa demonstrated an exceptionally accurate and elegant technique and superb musical sensibility.

However, although Falletta worked hard on the podium, her tentativeness in signaling difficult entrances had the orchestra faltering at spots, the winds were too loud and the final few bars did not make the wonderfully consoling impression they are meant to.

In the Turina and Mussorgsky works, Falletta showed why Long Beach has taken to her so enthusiastically: She seems to experience each bar fresh instead of presiding over an overly rehearsed routine.

The orchestra, although it suffered occasional intonation problems in the strings and squawky woodwind patches, played with a physical exuberance that left audience members on the edge of their seats.