BROWN LEADS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

It could have been the program, consisting of two universally popular pieces. It could have been the novelty of a woman conductor. Or, rather improbably, it could have been the European reputation of Iona Brown that accounted for a sold-out house and orchestra pit for her local debut with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in Ambassador Auditorium on Wednesday night.

The name was already familiar to Chamber Orchestra patrons, for Brown, a protegee of Neville Marriner, has been listed as its music adviser for nearly a year. At home in London, she succeeded Marriner as director of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Brown, a tall, handsome young woman gowned in two shades of purple, apparently entertains no ambitions toward conventional conducting. She came out holding high her 1740 Guadagnini violin and stationed herself before the orchestra’s string body with her back to the audience.

With bow in hand and violin tucked under her chin, she proceeded to lead the strings Vienna-cafe style--playing along with the orchestra, her body bobbing and swaying, her bow weaving large arcs in the air when the players required attention.

The main concentration was on keeping things together. A few graceful gestures in the way of dynamic and expressive indications did not have any very striking effects on Tchaikovsky’s Serenade in C. The orchestra plodded politely, as if accompanying a concerto, and coloristic and emotional responses were cramped and half-hearted.

The four concerto installments of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” fared better under the Brown system. She faced the audience while she played both the solo and the tutti parts, and her playing was crisp and clean, somewhat small in tone, and no paragon of intonational accuracy. The excess of echo effects became numbing, but in general the style was scholarly and clearly thought out.