MUSIC REVIEWS : South Bay Orchestra in Engaging Concert

In an inspired bit of programming, the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay made the concerto grosso the theme of its concert Sunday night at the Norris Theatre in Rolling Hills Estates.

With low-key and tasteful leadership from music director Frances Steiner, a solid assembly of soloists and sturdy performances from the orchestra, the concert proved engaging.

Little-known concerti grossi served as the focus of the event. Dipping into the bottomless well of Mozart, Steiner came up with the little Serenata Notturna, K. 239, for an orchestra of strings and timpani and a solo group of two violins, viola and double bass. A charmer not a masterpiece, the Serenata nevertheless fascinates because of its setting, a special interest group of soloists, with friendly, tuneful material, urging its case to the orchestral body politic, with a decidedly formal aspect to its music.

Miwako Watanabe, Nancy Roth, David Stenske and Norman Ludwin were the tightly knit concertino.

Ernest Bloch’s 1925 Concerto Grosso No. 1 for piano and strings closed the program, vigorously rhythmic, optimistic music in a neoclassical vein, well worth the exhumation and forcefully performed.

Bach’s Fifth “Brandenburg” Concerto was also heard, with a piano (not a harpsichord) in the solo group. It was a trade-off: In tutti passages, the piano sound was too milky for the texture, but in solo passages, and especially in the work’s whirring keyboard cadenza, the notes were projected with illuminating clarity. Jungran Khwarg was the pointed, sometimes dry-sounding pianist, with Watanabe and flutist Francine Jacobs seconding (and thirding) her heartily.