MUSIC REVIEW : Camerata’s a Bit Frustrating but Never Boring

Music Director Ami Porat led the Mozart Camerata in performances bursting with well-conveyed, decisive conceptions Saturday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. In the hands of his able group, these ideas sometimes took crystalline shape, and other times remained rough-hued.

At its best, as in Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture, the orchestra achieved an urgent poeticism. There was little of the potential foreboding here, yet much power and even poignancy, particularly in the lower strings’ luxurious melody. Clarinetists Caroline Tobin and Helen Good lent thoughtful somberness to their solos.

The reading of the closing movement of Mozart’s “Paris” Symphony--for which Porat demanded a very fast Allegro--also showed the Camerata at its best, capable of crisp articulation and apt voicing, while maintaining an aura of good-natured excitement.

While this season’s opening concert never bored, it did sometimes frustrate. Much of the dramatic punch of the Allegro assai in the symphony, dissipated in a patina of legato, when greater definition and judicious use of accent was warranted. Moreover, further attention to balance would have created more involving dialogue between string sections.

Porat featured Yuli Turovsky during half of the program. The cellist--a former member of the Borodin Trio and founder of I Musici de Montreal--brought intensity and point to his work, despite occasional technical slips. As protagonist in Gaspar Cassado’s arrangement of Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto, K. 447 (here edited by Porat), Turovsky brought impressive virtuosity and ardor.

Even these qualities, however, could not keep this listener from yearning for the timbral colors--which, on French horn, differ so markedly according to register--and contrasts that Mozart exploits in the original version.