Music Reviews : Larsen Work Falters but Bach, Mozart Shine

Speaking to the audience at the latest Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert at Ambassador Auditorium, composer Libby Larsen introduced the premiere performance of a work she wrote, on a commission from the orchestra, with a request to “bear with us.”

She reminded her listeners that new technologies sometimes do not work as planned, and acknowledged that the EMAX II sampler, the electronic member of the sextet for which the piece is written, might not function as well as it had at rehearsal.

This world premiere then proceeded, with the composer’s fears confirmed.

The electronic keyboard, played by Patricia Mabee, did not produce much sound--some of the promised aural items did not seem to materialize, or were heard faintly. For now, the 10 1/2-minute piece, titled “Schoenberg, Schenker and Schillinger” seems to be a colorful, abstract work of some density.

The good news: Two Bach works, the Suite No. 4 and the Concerto for Three Violins, BWV 1064, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for winds, received bright, transparent, festive performances, under Iona Brown’s aggressive leadership.

Allan Vogel, Gary Gray, Richard Todd and Kenneth Munday were the virtuosic soloists in Mozart’s showpiece. In the Bach concerto, the brilliant, complementary soloists were Brown, Ralph Morrison and Jacqueline Brand.

Most glorious, however, was the Bach Suite, which opened the program in a tight, motivated reading.