MUSIC REVIEWS : A CONCERT BY ORCHESTRA PLAYERS

When is an orchestral concert not an orchestral concert? When the program consists only of chamber music and the players add up to less than half their usual number.

American Chamber Symphony, the Westside ensemble soon to end its fourth season, gave such an event in Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism on Tuesday night. Except that the performances seemed ill-prepared and that the reverberant hall was overheated, it emerged more or less a pleasant affair.

And cleverly arranged. Chronologically backward, the program began with the world premiere performance of George Heussenstamm’s “Reflections on B-A-C-H” (1985) for nine instruments, and ended with Saint-Saens’ “Le Carnaval des Animaux” (1886) in its original instrumentation.

To these, music director Nelson Nirenberg added Poulenc’s “Mouvements Perpetuels” (1918) and Bohuslav Martinu’s Nonet (1959). If the total added up to not exactly a balanced musical meal--actually, it resembled more a salad-sampler--it promised at least to be flavorful.

Heussenstamm’s commissioned work set out to be, the program notes told us, an homage to Bach. In the ear, the serially oriented, nine-minute piece pays tribute more to Wagner, whose chromaticism it seems to emulate without anguish, though in dense textures and sober emotional aspect. The performance, conducted by Nirenberg, appeared to deliver fairly the short range of the new composition.

On the other hand, Nirenberg’s stolid reading of Saint-Saens’ witty suite failed to indicate the breadth of its coloristic possibilities. The solo pianists--the team of Ana Lia Lenchantin and Mario Merdirossian--proved accurate but lacking in panache. The accompanying instrumentalists, with the exception of cellist Janice Foy’s clear-toned playing of “Le Cygne,” seemed both dispirited and overloud.

Only actor Avery Schreiber, reading Ogden Nash’s now-dated but still effective lyrics, brought a modicum of Gallic lightness and style to the proceedings.

For the remainder of the evening, devoted to game but scrappy accounts of the Poulenc and Martinu works, the players gave considerable evidence of short acquaintance with each other and with the music at hand.