MUSIC REVIEWS : Perick, LACO Play Without Part/Bach

At least it left us wanting more.

With the main event of the evening--the U.S. premiere of a new work by Estonian composer Arvo Part--never materializing, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s program Thursday night at Ambassador Auditorium seemed oddly centerless.

That didn’t stop Christof Perick, newly re-signed as music director through the 1997-98 season, and the ensemble from performing their Part/Bach program with engrossing precision, but it did limit the concert’s overall impact.

Part, reportedly unhappy with the new work, called “Introductory Prayers,” in its recent European premiere, has withdrawn it from public performance. In its place, at the composer’s request, Perick substituted the familiar “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.”

Perick began with a curiosity, Part’s 1978 “Wenn Bach Bienen gezuchtet hatte” (“When Bach has raised bees”). The title turns out to be a pun: The eight-minute work makes its minimalistic way up (sounding curiously like Kurt Weill in the process) from B-flat to B-natural, with buzzing tremolos from the strings a main ingredient and a Bach-like summation at the end. It’s mildly amusing and pretty, but that’s about it.

Then came Part’s “Cantus,” a beautiful descending cascade of sound, a single six-minute sweep, for strings and bell. Perick led restrained accounts of both works, clearly textured, avidly played and completely unsentimental.

The rest of the brief program belonged to Bach, in vital performances. Concertmaster Ralph Morrison proved an exceptionally persuasive soloist in the two violin concertos, BWV 1041 in A minor and BWV 1042 in E.

His assured and graceful technique allowed him to make points with finesse. His taut yet elegant phrasing sent the music bounding forward. The sensitive accompaniment supplied by the conductor let Morrison play intimately, and this drew the listener in like a friendly whisper.

Bach’s celebratory Cantata “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen,” BWV 51, followed, with German soprano Ute Selbig, who made her U.S. debut with this ensemble last week, providing smooth, coloratura fireworks. The higher the notes, the happier she seemed, as her voice took on additional luster and flexibility. David Washburn blew merrily, brilliantly through the virtuoso trumpet solos. And that was that.