MUSIC REVIEWS : LACO CLOSES ITS AMBASSADOR SERIES

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra ended its current season with a whimper on Wednesday at Ambassador Auditorium under the Dutch conductor-scholar-instrumentalist Frans Brueggen.

Beginning a program of almost unrelentingly well-behaved music, the Suite No. 1 in E minor from Telemann’s “Tafelmusik,” showed that Brueggen could impose on the modern instruments a crisp, near-vibratoless sound reminiscent of the period - instrument groups with which he is normally associated.

As regards execution, the Telemann went splendidly, with ear-catching contributions from the expert flute duo of David Shostac and Susan Greenberg. The elegant, French-style work is, however, very mild stuff requiring more energizing leadership than would seem to be Brueggen’s wont.

Nor was much zest brought to the courtly Gallic measures which ended the program: an instrumental suite from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 1739 opera “Dardanus.” Again, however, one had to be impressed by the LACO’s ability to present the illusion of period style while playing on modern instruments.

The highlight of the evening had Brueggen in his metier, as a performer on period wind instruments. The vehicle chosen was his own , convincing and attractive reconstruction of a hypothetical J.S. Bach Concerto in D for treble recorder, strings and continuo. The variety -- and beauty -- of tone that Brueggen is able to draw from this small, fragile-looking device is remarkable, and his improvised-sounding ornamentation proved splendidly enhancing.

Back on the podium, Brueggen produced a stiff, charmless reading of Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik,” which, nonetheless, showed -- hardly for the first time in a season during which the players were exposed to nine guest conductors -- that the individual and collective virtues of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra can prevail over uninspiring leadership. There seems to be only one way for this ensemble to play: superbly.