You have to give a nod of acknowledgment to most attempts to create new audiences for classical music -- or to build the loyalty of those who sometimes yearn for more variety in its presentation. So, for the Indianapolis Symphony last weekend to preface performances of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" with spoken words from the mouths of professional actors and, in the latter case, choreography fitted to "Rite of Spring" excerpts executed by Dance Kaleidoscope dancers, is a laudable project. I'd have to confess my impatience with the burden each masterpiece was forced to carry, however, especially given the superb readings Mario Venzago led on Friday night. Yet, if even a few people listened more attentively because of such theatrics, the venture was probably worthwhile. For me, Roger Rees' strenuous emoting while impersonating Beethoven (the text was the famous Heiligenstadt Testament in which the composer laments his rapidly worsening deafness) was a bit of a trial, and the pre-Rite scenario enacting the disturbance at the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet in 1913 totally obscured the fact that the work was well-received at its second performance, and as an orchestral masterpiece, has occasioned very little protest from its first year before the public to the present day. (By the way, unless Rees underwent a Mike Myers-like transformation during intermission, he did not return in the second half to portray the ballet impresario Diaghilev, as the Star's review stated, but the rather stridently defensive Stravinsky.)