Music Reviews : Bruno Weil Leads L.A. Chamber at Bowl

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra not only filled Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday with elegant, undistorted sound--unthinkable with the amplification systems of earlier eras--but attracted a huge audience (officially, 12,067) for a Mozart program.

Podium duties were attended to by Bruno Weil, whose experience with period instrument ensembles was evidenced in brisk readings that favored lean-toned clarity and propulsiveness over sentiment.

With the orchestra in prime fettle, the program opened with a fluid, balanced account of the magical overture to “Der Schauspieldirektor,” with particularly gratifying contributions from the LACO winds.

Subsequently, one of our most knowledgeable Mozartians, pianist Jeffrey Kahane, lovingly projected the energy, fantasy--replete with the soloist’s own stylish ornaments--and lyricism inherent in the familiar Concerto in C, K. 467, sensitively partnered by Weil and his players. The flute and oboe interweavings were gracefully provided by Susan Greenberg and Allan Vogel, respectively.

The post-intermission portion of the program, however, proved disappointing. Even instrumentalists as skilled as these require more rehearsal time than was presumably available to bring off the finale of the Symphony in D, K. 320, without mishap at Weil’s blistering tempo--if such speed was necessary at all.

Then there was the music itself. A listener unacquainted with the greater glories of the seven-part “Posthorn” Serenade, from which the composer culled three movements for this symphony, might have been content. Those aware of the absence of the fabulous concertante movements--one for flute and oboe, the other with its pungent solo for the brass instrument that gives the serenade its name--had to lament the skimpiness of what was offered.

The evening ended with the six German Dances, K. 509, liltingly led and flawlessly executed but examples of Mozart in an uncharacteristically arch and repetitious mood.