MUSIC REVIEW : Moscow Virtuosi, Spivakov Offer Mozart at Center

A jaundiced eye is the correct approach to any ensemble describing itself as virtuoso . But in the case of the Moscow Virtuosi, the description is fair, as fair now as when the group was new, 12 years ago.

As the all-male--can you believe it, in 1991?--chamber orchestra from Russia showed again, in its third, odd-year visit to Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the skills of its 26 players mark a high point of Soviet conservatory achievement.

Music director Vladimir Spivakov seems to maintain and showcase these skills with particular flair, and the group’s performances are reliable and polished.

Friday night, the ensemble’s Mozart program offered mostly rarities in this year of Mozartean abundance. The familiar Symphony No. 29 was balanced by the less frequently encountered Symphony No. 24, and two concertos, the Concertone in C for two violins and the Violin Concerto No. 2, were revived felicitously.

Slickness is the danger with which accomplished players live; the Moscow Virtuosi does not escape this danger. Its sheen may mask occasional inattention from the instrumentalists; its careful placement of musical details is not always accompanied by emotional involvement.

Still, the exterior virtues of these performances had to be cause for enthusiastic admiration, which the Segerstrom Hall audience on Friday certainly demonstrated.

Concertmaster Arkady Futer--familiar from being spotlighted on previous solo U.S. tours by the ensemble--shared solo duties with conductor/violinist Spivakov in the joys of the Concertone in C.

Futer may tire of literally playing second fiddle to his younger colleague, but he never shows it in his affectionate, warm-toned and technically immaculate performances. Spivakov, who showcased himself in the first D-major Violin Concerto was, again, and as always, splendid in every way.

As a conductor, Spivakov may lack the individuality that makes some musical leaders unique. Even so, he gets the job done thoroughly.

His way with the Symphony No. 29 achieved no particular distinctions but did flow convincingly, despite some fascinating tempo fluctuations.

If he did not really justify his choosing the Symphony No. 24 for exhumation--for the sake of climax, one would probably have preferred a more dramatic, perhaps minor-key, symphony at this point in the program--he certainly made it a pleasant closer.

Where the players’ hearts really reside became clear in the first encore, Fritz Kreisler’s irresistible “Viennese March,” in which all of them seemed to come to life in ways Mozart had failed to bring out. Seldom has the difference between love and duty been displayed so graphically.