MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT EMBASSY

How much of an orchestra’s identity lies in where it plays? How many of a listener’s perceptions depend on where that listener sits? How high the moon?

Some questions can be answered only with more questions. Some acoustical problems are visual, or psychological, or both. However, some acoustical problems are only acoustical problems.

One was reminded of this on hearing the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in the Embassy Theatre downtown Thursday night. The ensemble, conducted on this occasion by outgoing music director Gerard Schwarz, did not sound like itself. It sounded like a number of individuals playing in the same place, some with the advantage of amplification, others working under a blanket.

Neither amplification nor blankets actually assisted at this event; what distorted the orchestra’s dependable professionalism and disoriented the victimized listener was the weird way sound behaves under the pretty dome of the Embassy. But that distortion seemed complete.

As a result, one cannot report confidently about balances, dynamics and the inner workings of Schwarz’s and the orchestra’s performances of a Mozart and Mendelssohn program devoted to the Fourth Horn Concerto, the D-minor Piano Concerto, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Octet and the same composer’s First Symphony (written when he was 15).

One can say that those performances seemed motivated and musically logical. That Richard Todd--principal hornist of LACO--produced an apparently edgeless and consistent sound and an elegant reading. That Bella Davidovich ignored the acoustical disaster around her, and made beautiful, articulate music in the D-minor Concerto. And that Schwarz attended to his accompanimental duties and to the youthful joys of Mendelssohn with equal panache and care.

But more than that would be guessing.