MUSIC REVIEW : NEWMAN PLAYS AT AMBASSADOR

Whatever stylistic gripes one might level at harpsichordist Anthony Newman--overly lush keyboard registrations, sometimes excessive tempos, a little too much freeness with rubato--the impression remains that he regards the audience as a large group of friends.

He did it again Wednesday night at Ambassador Auditorium, leading the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra through three harpsichord concertos by J.S. Bach, a Leclair violin concerto and the Concerto Grosso in A minor from Opus 6 of Handel. The overall impression was one of amiable music-making from a virtuoso keyboard player who has little to prove any longer, save that he remains a musician more concerned with communication than with musicological accuracy.

The three Bach works came off with nary a hitch. The F-minor Concerto (BWV 1056) suffered early on from balance problems--Newman insists on playing in the midst of the orchestra, and this sometimes rendered the solo parts inaudible. But by the sparkling final Presto, the playing and communicating was fresh, clear and only a trifle too Romantic.

The other two concertos (BWV 1053 and 1061, this last work for two harpsichords) suffered no such early handicaps: They were joyous musical missives, informed by a desire to communicate and share--though his cadenza in the first movement of BWV 1053 resembled Webern more than Bach. And the two-harpsichord work benefited from LACO keyboardist Patricia Mabee’s fluid, graceful solo contributions.

Associate concertmaster Bonnie Douglas would have done well to note Newman’s preoccupation with contact, for while her performance of Leclair’s A-minor Concerto was facile and well-played, it was rather brittle and fussy--a notably chilly exception to an evening dominated by warmth.