MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : L.A. Chamber Orchestra at 25: A Festive Night

Twenty-five years roll by whether one is paying attention or not. But there has been no inattention to the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in its very public growth from musical-baby-with-silver-spoon to world-class ensemble and opera-pit band in the nearly 2 1/2 decades since its October, 1969, debut at the Mark Taper Forum.

Christof Perick is the orchestra’s fourth music director, bringing his own repertorial specialties and probing musicianship to an instrumental ensemble of superior gifts and achievement--those years under Neville Marriner, Gerard Schwarz and Iona Brown having produced its basic skills and integrity. Perick led the first concert of this anniversary season, Friday night in bright-toned Royce Hall at UCLA, and an aggressive sense of celebration marked the evening.

It began with the subtle and pungent, in Stravinsky’s “Apollon Musagete,” a joyful score under most circumstances, but particularly satisfying in this transparent, faceted, persuasive reading by the LACO strings, led alertly by Perick.

The climactic part of the pre-intermission portion took the form of John Harbison’s new--commissioned by this orchestra--”Gli accordi piu usati / The most often-used chords,” an 18-minute concerto for orchestra that explores basic musical materials with a fervid imagination.

It is a raucous, sometimes thoughtful, consistently brilliant romp through scales, chords and other fundamental building blocks of tonal composition--a romp characterized by the virtuosity of both freewheeling composer and challenged players. So much fun is it that, when an almost-unexpected C-major chord ends the piece, the Royce Hall audience on this occasion virtually exploded in response.

Still, the best part of the evening was to come. Returning after a long absence from the Los Angeles area, pianist Bruno Leonardo Gelber joined the orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto that proved as memorable as it was intense.

Gelber’s reading emerged both majestic and human, stoic and emotional, sculpted and spontaneous. It held the listener with an irresistible conviction.

The 52-year-old Argentine is a pianist’s pianist in the way his fingers speak, his phrasing connects and his musical authority dominates. Technically, he commands wizardry--trills that sing and purl, a keyboard resonance that seems to touch the listener’s back, an accuracy that stuns mind and ear.

Indeed, Gelber’s kind of musical mind, in every moment served by kaleidoscopic technical resources, combines lucidity and heart and illuminates any music in a creative way. One had actually forgotten that the Fifth Piano Concerto, so often played politely and correctly, is actually a volcano of emotion. Seconded in energy level by Perick & Co., Gelber provided the reminder. Not inappropriately, there was a noisy standing ovation at the final cadence.