MUSIC REVIEWS : Camerata Hits Consistently : Irvine-based orchestra ended 1991-92 season on high note Saturday with well-executed Beethoven program.

Whatever ploys Mozart Camerata founder and artistic director Ami Porat has devised to keep his ensemble whole, they seem to work. As with other orchestras that do not hold their musicians by contract, one can never expect to see the same players at every performance. But of the Irvine-based Camerata--”a Classical orchestra,” its subtitle, describes its function--one can expect consistency.

The Beethoven program Porat led Saturday, ending the orchestra’s 1991-92 season, had a fine consistency in both execution and perspective.

In the welcoming acoustic and warm visual atmosphere of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Porat’s leadership of an agenda consisting of the Violin Concerto and the Fourth Symphony displayed authority, stylishness and conviction.

Porat can lean toward over-interpreting the scores he essays; the Symphony No. 4, then, may have lacked those pristine, emotionally stoic qualities one has always associated with it. Instead, it came across as a very bright, knowing young creature, tart in attitude, rich in sophistication.

This is a perfectly acceptable approach; with more rehearsals, it might even be thoroughly successful.

As things were, not every member of Porat’s gifted group of players cooperated at every given moment, and balances and focus tended sometimes to go askew. Still, what one heard was an instrumentally brilliant reading integrated by clear thought.

For the first movement of the Violin Concerto, an opposite approach dominated: Soloist Sergiu Schwartz, a very reliable virtuoso, under-characterized the Olympian moods of the opening movement in the familiar masterpiece, while playing the notes cleanly and dutifully.

The 35-year-old Romanian musician brought apparently deeper interest to the Larghetto, which he explored and brought forth beautifully. Then, in the finale, he sailed through the lightened mood without indicating its range of wit or touching down on all its humors. Throughout, he came to life regularly in the cadenzas.