Music Reviews : McGegan Leads Chamber Orchestra at Ambassador

Trust conductor Nicholas McGegan to look beyond the usual seasonal lollipops to the sort of wild (and often wonderful) Baroque mix he presented with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on Saturday at Ambassador Auditorium.

The nominal tried and true was represented by the opening selection, Corelli’s “Christmas” concerto grosso. Crisply executed by the small string ensemble under McGegan’s bright leadership, it emerged as one of the most polished examples of Baroque style--the use of modern instruments notwithstanding--heard here all year.

The bulk of the evening’s solo work was entrusted to a young American soprano, Alicia Purcell, who brought her small, well-tuned, agile instrument to the chirpy convolutions of Vivaldi’s “Laudate pueri” and to the soaring glee of that most Italianate of J. S. Bach’s sacred cantatas, “Jauchzet Gott.” The latter was further enhanced by Mario Guarneri’s spirited, note-perfect trumpet obbligato.

Diverting miniatures by Manfredini and Biber fleshed out a program that ended, as it had begun, with familiar pleasures: Bach’s Fifth “Brandenburg” Concerto, jauntily projected by a conductor who perceives perhaps better than any other the dancing heart of Baroque music.

The Bach concerto also offered opportunity for three chamber stalwarts to shine in solo capacities: violinist Ralph Morrison, whose playing proved a model of sweet-toned enlightenment throughout the evening; harpsichordist Patricia Mabee, and flutist David Shostac.