Concert review

Sound diagnosis for BSO's `CSI'

Innovative program on Beethoven mixes music and medicine

Except for a long, final monologue for Beethoven and some rather forced lines, Didi Balle's script achieved concision, naturalness and good flow. The whole thing looked and sounded like a docu-DVD in the making.

But Wednesday's 90-minute show felt padded, with the same ground covered more than once. There was also a lot of pushing to get folks to come back the next night for the answers to all the posited theories. I think a single, tightly compressed evening would have been more effective.

And I wish the music -- excerpts from the first five of Beethoven's nine symphonies and a snippet from a string quartet -- had been more neatly and meaningfully integrated into the package.

I also would have welcomed more interesting interpretive ideas from the conductor, who revealed less of her customary drive, and more involved, polished playing from the BSO.

Of course, this wasn't meant to be a concert, but a look beneath the epidermis of a musical giant. To that end, CSI: Beethoven cut smoothly and entertainingly.

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