An Extroverted Take on Shostakovich

Though Shostakovich’s symphonies are now being given some priority downtown by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jorge Mester beat him to the punch long ago, dipping into this cycle regularly since near the beginning of his tenure at the Pasadena Symphony.

Along the way, he has pulled together several distinguished performances--and to that list, add his rendition of the Symphony No. 15 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Saturday night.

Every conductor seems to have a different slant on this bafflingly elusive piece.

Some take Shostakovich at his dubious word and present it as a distant dream of childhood. Others emphasize satire and mockery or a stark, chilling terror of death or a lyrical bent or a defeated, sullen attitude.

Mester offered yet another view, an extroverted one, with a deliberately paced yet firmly rhythmic grasp on the first movement, deep yet not brooding brass sonorities elsewhere, the fleeting climaxes played out in bold, even brash fashion as if this was one of the vast middle symphonies.

Even in the mesmerizing percussive coda, which some interpret as a death rattle, it felt like a life-affirming performance, a viewpoint this work can take.

In the why-didn’t-anyone-think-of-this-before department, Mester shrewdly led off the concert with Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture, whose notorious galloping finale is quoted repeatedly and mockingly in Shostakovich’s first movement.

Ever since the Lone Ranger and Spike Jones had their ways with it, we’ve tended to forget how masterfully dramatic this overture is--and Mester took it seriously, refusing to rush the finale, conjuring eloquence from the cellos.

Mester also set up Dohnanyi’s “Variations on a Nursery Song” cunningly, making a blasting noise out of the deceptively tragic introduction so that pianist Robert Edward Thies could get a big laugh when he pounded out the banal little theme.

Later, Mester caught the broad humor of the Brahms parody variation, and Thies displayed crystalline clarity throughout.