Awaiting the Israel Chamber Orchestra

A number of positive changes have occurred in the Israel Chamber Orchestra since Yoav Talmi became music director in 1984, the 44-year-old native of Israel says.

“The ensemble was coming out of a bad period at that moment--the first problem we faced was that we were in the red,” Talmi said on the phone from Tel Aviv last week.

“Little by little, we made changes. I brought in a new concertmaster. Later, we hired new players. But mostly, we have been upgrading the orchestra’s quality, while we straightened out the funding.”

The present artistic condition of the chamber orchestra can be assessed this week, when Talmi and his 36-member ensemble launch a cross-country tour in Irvine and Pasadena. Sponsored by the office of arts and lectures at UC Irvine, the orchestra plays Wednesday night at 8 in South Coast Community Church. The next night, the ensemble plays Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

The program for these two concerts, and for Saturday night in San Diego, are similar: at Irvine, the ensemble will play Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins (with soloists Eliahu Shulman and David Braude), Hindemith’s “Kammermusik” Opus 24, No. 1; Tzvi Avni’s “Meditations on a Drama,” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”). At Ambassador, the Hindemith work will be replaced by Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 (“Farewell”). In San Diego, the Irvine program will be given.

Founded by Gary Bertini in 1965, the Israel Chamber Orchestra began life as a small group “of 16 to 18 players,” Talmi, who at that time was an associate conductor of the orchestra, says. Later, when Rudolf Barshai of the Soviet Union led the orchestra, it grew to 45 members.

“At that point, there was no justification for two large orchestras in our city. (The other, of course, being the Israel Philharmonic.) There was even duplication of repertory.” Today, the 36-musician body--”basically the same size as the major chamber orchestras of the world, like the ones in Los Angeles and in England”--is a full-time ensemble, working year-round, with an eight-week paid vacation.

Over the years, the Israel Chamber Orchestra has come, Talmi says, “to specialize in repertory the IPO wouldn’t touch: music of living Israeli composers, contemporary music from all over the world, choral music, music for voice and orchestra. We have built up our audience. Today, our subscriptions are four times what they were in 1984.”

BALLET THEATRE: American Ballet Theatre arrives Tuesday night for its annual spring visit in Shrine Auditorium; the engagement runs through March 20. During the stay, ABT will present the world premiere of Agnes de Mille’s new ballet, “The Informer,” two other premieres and three full-length classics.

Opening night, Tuesday, will feature the Los Angeles premieres of the ABT’s new production of Leonide Massine’s “Gaite Parisienne,” with costumes designed by Christian Lacroix and sets by Zack Brown, and George Balanchine’s “Ballet Imperial.”

See Listings Page for other repertory and casting details, and De Mille story, Page 59.

ALSO ON TOUR: The Pittsburgh Symphony, absent from our shores since 1982, returns to the Southland for three performances this week. Wednesday night at 8 in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Friday night at 8 at El Camino College in Torrance, and Saturday night at 8 in Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, Charles Dutoit will lead the 106-member ensemble in this program: Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan,” Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”) and Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” . . . Trevor Pinnock brings his period-instrument chamber orchestra, The English Concert, to Ambassador Auditorium Tuesday night at 8. The program includes Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 49 and 59 and concertos by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach . . . More visitors from England, the Arditti String Quartet, on another UK/LA Festival event, play a program of music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Brian Ferneyhough, Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Monday night at 8 . . . French flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal appears in recital with pianist John Steele Ritter tonight at 8 in Royce Hall, UCLA, then solos with the Pacific Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Monday and Tuesday nights at 8.

COMPOSERS: Krzysztof Penderecki will be conductor-in-residence at the 1988 Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene. Penderecki will lead the June 24 performance of his own “Polish Requiem” at the festival. Helmut Rilling, the long-time music director of the festival, will conduct Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem,” and the afternoon concert series, this year devoted to works by J. S. Bach and Mozart. Brochure: School of Music, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore. 97403.

COMPETITION VICTOR: Wendy Chen, a 15-year-old student of Dorothy Hwang at the Community School of the Performing Arts, won first prize in the piano division of the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Concerto Competition, held at the New England Conservatory in Boston. The award includes $5,000 in scholarship money and concert engagements.