Music Reviews : Steiner Leads Chamber Orchestra of South Bay

An enlightened program of late 18th-Century music, leavened by some rare Americana, was the attractive bill for Sunday night’s concert by the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay at the Norris Theatre in Palos Verdes. And thanks largely to music director Frances Steiner’s modest, no-nonsense but assertive conducting style, the program proved as successful in the event as it was in the planning.

The featured soloist was Anne Diener Giles, principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in a lively and elegant account of Mozart’s Concerto in G, K. 313. Though the Norris Theatre acoustics are unflatteringly dry, Giles used them to her advantage, readily communicating with a warmth and subtlety not always possible in larger, more reverberant halls. Technical challenges were smoothly and gracefully tossed off while Steiner provided elegant, fully involved accompaniment.

Giles returned after intermission for the brief “Night Piece” for flute and strings by the American composer Arthur Foote (1853-1937), a seldom-heard but attractive work of gentle, soothing late-Romanticism. She was gracefully rhapsodic in the long-lined solos, the strings supplying a rather thinly textured, though adequate, backdrop.

Steiner concluded with a surely drawn, propulsive reading of Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony. Her responsive orchestra revealed both dramatic and subtle contrasts. During the concluding adagio, the players made their appropriate exits, turning off their stand lights as the stage lighting dimmed. Perhaps forgetting the original poignant meaning, the audience laughed in amusement.

The conductor began the concert with a sprightly performance of the Overture in D by Boccherini.