MUSIC REVIEW : Camerata Is Tripped Up by the Technical

Music director Ami Porat led the Mozart Camerata in a risk-laden program of music for strings alone on Sunday at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. Showcasing particular players demonstrates a confidence in their abilities, but it also forces them to become the sole focus of attention. Strengths shine, but weaknesses become just as glaring.

During this concert, as in the past, Porat showed that he can command sensitive interpretations from his musicians. He can draw well-turned phrases from them. He can demand attention to dynamic nuance.

Still, it’s hard to focus on interpretation without reliable technical finesse within sections. One hopes that members of each section will agree on when to start a note and when to end it, that they all have the same concept of any particular pitch, and that they will assay fleet passages at precisely the same tempo.

On this occasion, Porat seemed unable to elicit such dependability.

Violinists plunged through the playful Badinerie of Corelli’s Suite for Strings, sometimes at conflicting speeds.

Pitch appeared problematic during parts of the Andante Cantabile from Roman Hoffstetter’s Divertimento in F--thought to be Haydn’s String Quartet, Opus 3, No. 5, until 1964--though intonation improved markedly after the orchestra retuned, following this work.

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The orchestra apparently could not decide when to make entrances during a subdued reading of Barber’s Adagio for Strings or at the close of an otherwise poignant Elegy, in the Serenade, Opus 48, by Tchaikovsky.

To be sure, there were moments, even whole movements, during which these problems did not surface.

Tchaikovsky’s Serenade closed with a polished Allegro con spirito--in turn lilting and animated--prefaced by a touching folk tune. The Scherzando from Hoffstetter’s Divertimento emerged a light, fast-paced pleasantry.

Yet technical glitches intruded too frequently to permit unfettered attentiveness to musical content.