MUSIC REVIEW : Maisky With L.A. Chamber Orchestra

Mischa Maisky is a swashbuckler of a cellist. A compact, bearded man in a shiny gray shirt, he played Haydn’s Concerto in C--with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at Ambassador Auditorium Thursday--with an aggressive intensity little short of ferocity. Not exactly a stylistic marriage made in any purist’s heaven, but it proved undeniably exciting.

That was made immediately clear with his gruff, big-toned, heavily accented entrance. Maisky is capable of a pointed lyricism, though it seems more a calculated contrast than a natural effusion.

The excitement level climbed precipitously in the Adagio, when Maisky broke a string. The cellist finished the movement in obvious distress, improvising a forgivably desultory cadenza on one string.

He then swapped instruments with LACO second-chair cellist Nils Oliver. Apparently feeling he had nothing to lose, Maisky attacked the finger-busting finale with vigorous abandon. He never lost control of the music, however, playing cleanly and clearly on the unfamiliar instrument, and with remarkable elan.

The orchestra, led by Iona Brown from the concertmaster’s seat as usual, accompanied Maisky handsomely. Balances were always supportive and tempos accommodating in a performance that overcame stylistic incongruity and instrumental trauma with sheer verve.

The rest of the program displayed the sonic polish of the LACO strings to fine effect. Brown and Co. began with the Ricercar from Bach’s “Musical Offering,” in an imaginative arrangement by Neville Marriner, and continued with a crisp, buoyant account of Handel’s Opus 6 Concerto Grosso in B minor, to which harpsichordist Patricia Mabee made a distinguished contribution.

At the end was a luminous account of Schoenberg’s “Verklarte Nacht.” Attacks were occasionally ragged, and the dramatic line of the tone poem sagged at times. But for sustained aural reverie--plush, richly romantic sound, yet transparent in texture when needed--this was a cherishable performance.