MUSIC REVIEW : Philharmonic Principals Play Mozart

Both occupants of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s first viola stand were featured in a happy collaboration Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Assistant conductor--and principal violist--Heiichiro Ohyama presided over a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat, K. 364, in which associate principal violist Dale Hikawa and assistant concertmaster Mark Baranov served as the soloists.

Both Baranov and Hikawa brought unerring control and stylish elegance to the work. The partners exhibited remarkable interpretive agreement, so vividly illustrated in the many passages in which the violin’s melodic idea is then taken up by the viola. Both played with telling sensitivity and probing lyricism, particularly in the Andante, certainly one of Mozart’s most inventive and moving slow movements. They brought clarity and ebullience to the fast movements, and received crisp, sure support from the orchestra.

Barber’s First Essay and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 1, reviewed earlier, completed the program.