Music Reviews : L.A. Chamber Orchestra Opens Its 21st Season

Twenty years rush by whether you’re having fun or not. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, which launched its 21st season Friday night in Royce Hall at UCLA, seems to be having much fun these days.

One of its many strengths is the continuity that comes, not just from performing the standard repertory with a stable group of conductors, but also from serving regularly as pit band for Music Center Opera. LACO may have been opening its regular, subscription season only Friday, but, in fact, the ensemble has recently completed a spate of opera performances--of “Tosca” and “Mahagonny”--at the Music Center.

Its commitment to Schubert and Bartok, the featured composers on this program (to be repeated at Ambassador Auditorium, next weekend), however, could not be doubted. Under Christof Perick, a regular visitor to local podiums, the orchestra’s playing of the “Great” C-major Symphony and the Overture in C, “in the Italian Style,” plus the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, became fully realized, virtually immaculate and emotionally potent.

There is no chamber-orchestra tradition of Schubert Ninths. On the contrary, most of us grew up on large-scale performances of the piece by full symphonic contingents. Perick’s run-through had many charms--including the breathlessness of brisk tempos--plus a translucency of sound not necessarily due to there being fewer than 50 players on the stage, but attributable to a conscious attempt at instrumental clarity. One heard the strength of the work, not the size of the band.

Details seemed as illuminated as balances proved stable. Wind solos emerged clear, but part of the fabric. Only an arguably too-quick opening movement kept this performance from true Schubertian expansiveness.

Since its first season--the opening concert was given Oct. 27, 1969--LACO has been an authoritative Bartok performer.

Its playing Friday of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, which some have called the composer’s masterpiece, went beyond authority; it spoke eloquently, in wide-ranging emotional terms and with compelling rhetoric. The West German conductor took its measure and delivered its messages convincingly. The orchestra played magnificently.