Music and Dance Reviews : Yoav Talmi Conducts L.A. Chamber Orchestra

Giving a nod to new music and tipping its hat at an old Art Deco theater, the Wiltern, the peripatetic Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra hit on an appealing mix Friday--thanks largely to its guests, conductor Yoav Talmi and violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann.

A West Coast premiere, Michael Gandolfi’s “Point of Departure” turned out to be an ambitious, intricately wrought work that moves cunningly from agitated to lyric to mournful states, one that filters its various motifs and materials through a high-definition structure of extraordinary polish. Talmi and the orchestra seized the opportunity, answering its challenges to refinement and clarity.

It seemed, in fact, a deliberate continuation of musical thought when the ensemble, with Zimmermann, next launched into Prokofiev’s First Concerto--for here was an echo of winds chirping over high tremolo strings, sounding the same aerial tension of Gandolfi’s piece. The soloist, a1847616888th the placid shimmer of the music. Adding Ravel’s dark and throaty “Tzigane” merely broke themood.

But Talmi redefined it, along with Beethoven’s First Symphony, to which he brought equal parts gracious warmth and driving exuberance.