BSO brightens a drizzly Sunday

The rain had been drizzling down all Sunday morning. A nasty chill gusted through the wet air. Could there be a more perfect time for a little Beethoven and a little Mozart? The answer, of course, is no — except, when the Bangor Symphony Orchestra tuned up yesterday afternoon at the Maine Center for the Arts, the players weren’t thinking little. They were thinking — and playing — big.

With a program of Beethoven’s “Coriolanus Overture” and his Symphony No. 8 as well as Mozart’s “Idomeneo Overture” and Symphony No. 41, conductor Christopher Zimmerman must have known he had a crowd-pleaser on his hands — or at the tip of his baton, as the case may be. Say what you assuredly will about tricky moments of clarity, dynamics or technical skill; it was just plain good to hear a live performance of works by these two symphonic wizards.

As for the nuances, Zimmerman put suspense in the overture to “Coriolanus” and the musicians went virtuously into total concentration with the score. The piece was shortish, but the performance was substantial.

Bear in mind that Beethoven’s hearing had begun to decline after 1800, and that he was completely deaf by 1814 when Vienna first witnessed his Symphony No. 8 in F Major. Beethoven called the 8th “my little symphony in F,” and poured forth such amusement and brightness, it’s no wonder he waited 10 years to compose his final valedictory symphony.

Some may expect to hear this piece with chirpy humor, but for those who like their Beethoven with more of a vivid, plain-spoken approach, Zimmerman evenhandedly did the job. Beth Wiemann’s clarinet was particularly glamorous in the menuetto, a movement that simply waltzed along toward that final teasing allegro that showed the rascally side of the BSO.

And still, some might say, the best was yet to come. The musicians stayed vibrant for the overture to Mozart’s first great opera, “Idomeneo,” and then licked along through his Symphony No. 8, better known — though no one seems to know why for sure — as “The Jupiter.” For the earlier pieces, the orchestra had been compacted into fewer players than usual, which Zimmerman rightly lessened to nearly half for this performance. He kept a light touch, singingly here, swingingly there, and concluded with Mozartian fancy.

In the end, you might have had squabbles about this phrase or that. But the upshot was this music beautified an otherwise blah day.