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Bach’s sublimely joyous “Magnificat” is one of the most welcome of seasonal staples. It does not, however, usually come replete with the four hymns that Bach interpolated in his earliest version of the work, as it did Thursday when John Alexander led the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and his Pacific Chorale in a bright, tight program at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Alexander kept the key and orchestration of Bach’s later revision, transposing the four supplemental movements and reinserting them in their original positions. This strange brew was confused in the printed program, and it flumoxed the announcer who partially emended that program as well as members of the orchestra, who had the wrong music up at the beginning of one of the add-ins.

The results were interesting, if decidedly mixed. Bach expunged the hymns for compelling structural and textual reasons, and the experience of the work with them is very different--more contained and sectional musically, more abstracted spiritually--than that of the swiftly flowing, more spontaneous revision.

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The Pacific Chorale seemed to relish the extra work, however, at least in the acappella chorale motet “Von Himmel hoch.” The full chorale sang an out-sized Mozart Requiem two weeks ago in Long Beach; here, a chamber choir subset demonstrated its versatility with lean, clean performances that did full justice to the extroverted movements, but left the ethereal “Suscepit Israel” earthbound.

Soprano Virginia Sublett headed the effective soloists--mezzo Martha Jane Weaver, tenor Paul Johnson, and baritone Thomas Jones. The added piece with the mix-up at the beginning was a duet for Sublett and Jones which also ended in trouble, but otherwise the vocally varied quartet proved generally expressive, with strong support from LACO soloists, including an impressively long-lined obbligato from oboist Allan Vogel.

Alexander maintained quick but not rushed tempos, as he had earlier in Schubert’s evergreen Mass in G and Corelli’s “Christmas” Concerto. Sublett made particularly compelling contributions to the Schubert and the reduced contingent of LACO strings played the Corelli with easy grace.

* The program is repeated tonight, 8:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (213) 622-7001, Ext. 215. $12-$42.