Any decent orchestra worthy of its rosin and cork-grease must necessarily contain musicians who are not only first-rate team players but who are also ready to take up the lead in a concerto or two. Santa Rosa Symphony is that orchestra, from bridge to scroll. A glance down their roster reveals names that keep recurring across the panorama of our local music scene, from symphony to chamber to the most eclectic of experimentation: Candice Guirao, Robin Bonnell, Wanda Warkentin, Linda Ghidossi-DeLuca, Laura Chrisp, Kathleen Lane Reynolds, to name a very few. On Saturday night the Symphony presented a program of concertos that showed these performers at their best, almost making the tradition of the visiting soloist seem unnecessary, at least for this group.

The concert comprised a well-matched pair of sets. In the first part various soloists from the ranks played concerti of widely differing moods, styles and instruments. Heading the program was a fine reading of the Bach Concerto for two violins in D minor, with Concertmaster Joseph Edelberg and Principal Second Karen Shinozaki as soloists. The texture had an appropriate lightness, occasionally marred by a slight overage of lower strings. Both soloists played with sensitivity to the music, though they were not ideally matched as partners. Edelberg's broad, elegant tone often covered that of Shinozaki, who had a lighter, sweeter approach. The partnership didn't quite click except during the central Largo movement, when the romantic gentleness of the music brought both voices into communion.

The Trombone Concerto of Danish Composer Launy Grondahl found the perfect advocate in trombonist Bruce Chrisp. Chrisp captured the meaning and lyricism in this small-scale, surprisingly-quiet showcase, in the proclamations of the first movement, the passion of the second, and the grooving of the third. He had a full, generous sound with a lot of color and well-controlled brassiness in loud passages. But for sheer chops, it took clarinetist Roy Zajac to blow out the doors with his energetic performance of Debussy's Première rapsodie, which closed the set. The careful ministrations of conductor Jeffrey Kahane brought such life to the score that it was hard to imagine it had been orchestrated from a piano part. Zajac's approach was naturally virtuosic, with unearthly precision in the treacherous middle section, though his tone lacked warmth at times in more-lyric passages.

Expansive contrast

The precociousness of the first set was balanced by sheer opulence in the second, a no-holds-barred performance of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. This was both a statement of the excellence of the players and a testament to the care and skill of conductor Kahane. The orchestra followed each change of mood, each trick of tempo, with exacting alertness. The moments one tends to notice less were much more prominent while the set pieces were less overblown. The overall effect was a continuous stream of fascination, pulling this listener ever closer to the arcane yet humanistic vision of the composer.

Kahane's approach seemed counter-intuitive in many places. Moments of mystery, such as the opening of the first movement, were all the more mysterious for being simply presented. The madcap cartoony parodies of the notorious intermezzo were deadpanned, with a resultant wit that came across all the more deadly.

The strings were in fine fettle with particular excellence in the violas and cellos as they emoted their sectional arias. The percussion shone in tattoo, boom and snippet, while the brasses were properly rich and outrageous once they warmed up. The standouts of the evening were the winds, in both bravura passages and subtle connecting lines. The Game of Pairs seemed more an ensemble effort than a series of clever duos as the weaving parallel lines moved across the section with integrated intention and outlook. The bassoon playing was particularly remarkable. Principal bassoonist Carla Wilson played with insistence, agility and intuition, underpinning the winds and string with apparent grace. It brought home the derivation of that word, concerto: to agree upon and act in harmony with. Amen.

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