Music Reviews : At Ambassador, More Brilliance From Prague

For most solo violinists, playing the Beethoven Concerto with a conductorless orchestra must be like walking a tightrope without a net--only more dangerous.

For Robert McDuffie, the justly praised American fiddler who this month is touring as soloist with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, it seems perfectly natural, even easy.

Opening the 17th season of subscription concerts at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena--have these years evaporated, or what?--the Prague ensemble began its Wednesday night concert with beautifully sculpted and tight performances of works by Beethoven, the “Creatures of Prometheus” Overture and the Violin Concerto.

Two more elegant, handsomely balanced and musically cohesive readings would be hard to imagine.

Without a mastermind on a podium, the 35 members of this all-male orchestra--who had played a different program, Saturday in Costa Mesa--became their own masterminds through full commitment of energy, finely honed instrumental skills, virtually perfect ensemble and just plain good taste.

In the Concerto, McDuffie served as their catalyst in a performance both classically limned and apparently spontaneous in its generosity of spirit. Technically, the 34-year-old violinist has few peers; artistically, his individuality and probing musicality promise the longest of careers.

After intermission, 18 members of the orchestra gathered onstage for a revival of Bohuslav Martinu’s pungent, compact Serenade No. 3 (1932), in a pleasing performance no doubt enhanced through the by-now familiar clarity of sound in this 1,260-seat hall.

To close, the full orchestra achieved a sometimes scrappy yet nicely driven and usually transparent performance of Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony.

The appreciative Ambassador audience received one encore: the finale of Haydn’s Symphony No. 48, the “Maria Theresia.”