Scott Cantrell

DENTON – "You know, when you get old, you need a little more time." So conductor Anshel Brusilow said Wednesday night, taking a big pause before the finale of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony. The audience in Winspear Hall at the University of North Texas, even members of the UNT Symphony Orchestra, chuckled.

With this concert, Mr. Brusilow, still vigorous at age 79, closed a nearly 30-year tenure at UNT (interrupted by seven years at Southern Methodist University). And although the Pathétique slowly fades into nothing, Mr. Brusilow hardly went gently into that good night.

In an age of metronomes masquerading as conductors, Mr. Brusilow dared to set an intensely personal stamp on Tchaikovsky's last symphony. From the mysterious opening, this was a performance that stretched and contracted to telling musical and dramatic effect.

The main theme of the first movement and the third movement's off-kilter "waltz" were slower than the composer's metronome markings, and both wanted more forward impulse. But unlike too many conductors, Mr. Brusilow didn't sentimentalize the finale; he proved that a performance can be both dry-eyed and emotionally powerful.

In full cry, the brasses blared stirringly, and principal clarinetist Thomas Kmiecik lent gracious solos. The cellos spun out their third-movement tune quite nicely. Violins were best when not pressed in either speed or pitch.

The all-Russian concert's first half was devoted to Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky cantata. The score has some magic moments, notably the quietly portentous opening. But, divorced from the Sergei Eisenstein film for which it was written, it hectors too relentlessly; on this occasion too much was at the threshold of pain. Ensemble was less secure than in the Tchaikovsky, and trumpets had trouble with high pianissimos.

But the UNT Grand Chorus, prepared by Jerry McCoy, was fabulous: firm, focused, fine-tuned and genuinely exciting. Pamela King was the capable mezzo soloist.