The Santa Barbara Symphony opened its 53rd season over the weekend with a diverse program led by yet another worthy candidate for the job of permanent conductor.

Joana Carneiro, 29, already a sensation in her native Portugal, led the orchestra through works by composers as varied as contemporary Peter Maxwell Davies and 20th century Russian giant Sergei Rachmaninoff. She is one of a series of conductors being considered to head the orchestra after the resignation of Gisele Ben-Dor.

Carneiro is a protege of the L.A. Philharmonic’s Esa-Pekka Salonen and recently was appointed the L.A. Phil’s permanent guest conductor.

The piano soloist was another young musician with outstanding credentials, Israeli-born Alon Goldstein. He performed the evening’s concluding work, the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto in C minor, with plenty of fire and technical prowess.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise” was the opening work, another sure-fire crowd winner. Bagpiper Paul Hodgins performed the haunting solo that highlights this tribute to Scotland.

W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, “Prague,” with Carneiro bringing out its varied moods, featured a joyous presto movement. The second half opened with Samuel Barber’s Essay No. 1, Op. 12, with the composer in a reflective mood comparable to his Adagio for strings.

One of those serendipitous musical programs that just seem to happen from time to time took place in Lehmann Hall of the Music Academy of the West, with Cynthia Darby at the piano.

She was paired with Mary Beth Woodruff in J.S. Bach’s Sonata in F minor, BWV 1018, one of the composer’s works that gives the keyboard equal voice with the violin. This little-heralded concert attracted a full house, testimony to the unflagging local interest in chamber music.

The Bach was followed by W.A. Mozart’s Duo for Violin and Viola in B-flat major, KV 424, in a spirited performance by Woodruff and Basil Vendryes on viola.

The major work of the evening was the Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello in C minor, Op. 60 by Johannes Brahms. A foursome of Darby, Wooduff, Vendryes and Andrew Luchansky on cello gave an emotional reading of this work, which apparently was inspired by Clara Wieck Schumann. She was not only a gifted pianist, but also the wife of Robert Schumann, who suffered a serious mental breakdown and was institutionalized.