MUSIC REVIEWS : Rome Chamber Ensemble Presents Familiar Works

The chance that performers take when they program super-familiar works is that a sensitive listener will remember other, better performances.

There was a whole lot of remembering going on, at least by a certain set of ears, Wednesday in Bing Theater at the L.A. County Museum of Art, when the International Chamber Ensemble of Rome played Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” Overture and Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” Overture.

Led by conductor Francesco Carotenuto, this 15-year-old ensemble, 31-strong, had no new or interesting national insights into this repertory. These musicians played the well-worn agenda quickly and brashly and sometimes brutally. A search for subtlety went unrewarded.

The orchestra’s tone is bright to a fault, and, during tuttis, the needle edged into the ugly range. Soloists played loud. Accents were hard. Intonation shaky. Ensemble slipshod.

And so it went. Even in the slow movements of the “Italian” Symphony, the group managed to sound overbearing, opting for emotionalism instead of elegance.

Fortunately, pianist Marisa Candeloro was on hand for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. She caressed and coaxed its phrases, producing a glowing and communicative lyricism. She declaimed the rhetorical peaks of its virtuoso passage-work with force, breadth and clarity. She explored its philosophical depths and poetic nuances leisurely and thoughtfully.

As a much-deserved encore she offered a ripping traversal of Villa-Lobos’ brief “Polichinelle.” She alone proved memorable.