Music : LACO Premieres Rouse’s ‘Iscariot’

Programming is an arcane art, and its most successful practitioners often do not receive all the credit they deserve--simply because they are equally successful in the more public areas of music performance.

For instance: John Nelson, the guest conductor at the latest pair of portable Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concerts.

Nelson, who led the LACO band in twin performances, at UCLA on Saturday night and at Ambassador Auditorium on Sunday, coaxed such brilliant and cherishable playing from the ensemble--at least on Saturday in Royce Hall--that some observers may not have noticed what a clever and satisfying agenda he had put together for this visit.

It was an orchestral sandwich in which Beethoven provided the bread--the incidental music to Act II of “Prometheus” and the Eighth Symphony--and Prokofiev and Christopher Rouse the filling. And it satisfied one’s aesthetic appetites--deeply.

The West Coast premiere of Rouse’s gripping “Iscariot”--a 13-minute rouser in overlapping layers of aural intensity--lived up to its promise, and to the faith put in the 41-year old composer by the joint commissioners, LACO and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (which played the world premiere, last month).

It consists of a series of abstract but engrossing musical events, discrete fragments succeeding each other in sharp contrast, with no loss of emotional power. Rouse proves again his virtuosity as a writer of color and originality.

Before that, Joseph Swensen was the soloist in a felicitous revival of Prokofiev’s jaunty G-minor Violin Concerto, sailing through its hurdles and caressing its many charms.

The surrounding Beethoven works were treated with equal care and affection, and sang out in the welcoming acoustic of Royce Hall with particular emotional and aural resonance.