When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, Leonard Bernstein celebrated by putting together an orchestra of international musicians for a performance of Beethoven's triumphant Ninth Symphony in D Minor, the final chorus of which became an "Ode to Freedom."

To mark the beginning of the Beach Cities Symphony's 60th season Friday night at the Marsee Auditorium on the El Camino College campus, maestro Barry Brisk also decided to celebrate by serving up Beethoven's mighty Ninth.

And, truly, to provide music lovers with free, often high-quality concerts for all these years is indeed a momentous accomplishment.

Only one current orchestra member, French horn player and symphony president Robert Peterson, was at the first rehearsal 60 years ago. Unfortunately, he was ill Friday, but he is expected to play at the next concert.

For the powerful "Ode to Joy" chorus, Brisk gathered four noted soloists in addition to 175 singers from various El Camino College choirs.

The chorus members sat obediently and unnoticed in the back throughout the entire first three movements. One wishes the risers had been higher so the singers could have been more visible.

The first allegro movement, with its gorgeous theme, had some great moments with an overflow of string tremolos and echoes between sections, but in the fast and molto vivace scherzo movement, some sections lagged despite the maestro's stern looks and flailing baton.

Of course, this symphony is so well known that any deviation from the norm sticks out.

Before the adagio movement, the four soloists took center stage. Especially the two women - soprano Erin Wood and mezzo-soprano Cynthia Jansen, in voluminous black gowns - sat immobile, like unearthly wax figures, all through the movement. What stage presence!

Tenor Robert MacNeil and baritone Martin Schaefer, also in evening dress, were less prominent.

While the first three movements at times sounded perfunctory, the final recitative movement made up for any previous lack of excitement with all of its stirring and contrasting sections.

Sometimes referred to as a symphony within a symphony in four movements, it has a forward feeling, as if looking ahead to what is to come, with inspiring parts for among others the cellos, basses, oboes and trumpets, as well as the singers.

However, this was Beethoven's last symphony, finished in 1824. By then, Beethoven was totally deaf, and he died three years later.

Thankfully, the lyrics, based on a compelling poem by Friedrich Schiller, were sung in German with the standard English translation printed in the program notes. Particularly noteworthy was soprano Wood with her crystal-clear sound in the high register.

The over-70-minute-long symphony did not allow for an intermission, and the audience - who filled most of the seats in the 1,200-seat orchestra section (the ushers had to open up the balcony) - rewarded the performance with a standing ovation.

The accolades were not just for the orchestra but also for Brisk, who had the courage to program this work, demanding for orchestra and soloists.

Beach Cities Symphony's next concert is scheduled for Jan. 29 at the same venue. It will feature pianist Esther Keel, a recent graduate of The Juilliard School, in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Brisk's new composition, "Kaleidoscope," written in honor of the symphony's 60th anniversary.

Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.

On Friday night, Beach Cities Symphony showcased four such musicians, all winners of the Music Teachers Association of California Artists of the Future competition, at Marsee Auditorium on the El Camino College campus near Torrance. It was the symphony's final concert of the season and truly the highlight of the year.

The first young musician to take center stage was violinist Kristie Su, 16, in a fiery rendition of Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane," a flashy concert rhapsody for violin and orchestra.

Like a real Gypsy (Tzigane means Gypsy), Su played the devilish piece with abandon. Relishing the contrasts, she plucked the strings with zest and tossed off the wild phrases with great flourish, often with a mischievous grin.

Nathan Ben-Yehuda, a ninth-grader at Malibu Independent School, followed with the first movement of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. It's a veritable song of Norway - you can practically feel the mountain air, hear the purling streams and see the little troll children frolicking in the spring snow melt.

An accomplished ballet dancer in addition to being a pianist, Ben-Yehuda attacked the cascading opening chords with elegance and drama, using his hands and long arms to finish off phrases with grace and style.

Pianist Katherine Daly, 16, a sophomore at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School and a student of Edwin Deveny and Charlotte Deveny, a former member of the Lawrence Welk band, selected the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major.

Daly began rather timidly in the introspective and contemplative solo opening. A cool and calm performer, she displayed no antics so common in other musicians who often cover up a lack in technical skills with extraneous body language. Instead, Daly let the fingers do the talking with incredibly clean trills and running scales, as her slender hands fluttered up and down the keyboard of the Steinway piano. It all seemed so effortless, although she could have displayed a little more emotion in this beautiful piece.

Last out was pianist Jason Griffin, 15, performing the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major. An eighth-grader at Ridgecrest Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes, Griffin captured the audience's attention with his bright and playful performance in this tuneful allegro movement structured around the English sea chantey "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?"

While the orchestra, under the baton of maestro Barry Brisk, at times had difficulty keeping up with the soloists, it also had a chance to shine in the energetic overture to the opera "La forza del destino" ("The Force of Destiny") by Giuseppe Verdi that opens with three distinct chords by the brass. The overture foreshadows the gloom and doom in the opera, and Brisk let the lyrical melody, sung later in the opera by the ill-fated soprano, build to a rousing ending.

Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.