Mozart Orchestra at Its Imaginative Best

Conductor Lucinda Carver and the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, who performed Saturday at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, always make things interesting. Their concerts are anticipated.

That’s not only because of the consistent polish of the playing but also because of the tasty programming. The combination attracted a large contingent of the faithful even on a drenched evening.

The programming is carefully done. Mozart and Haydn are the orchestra’s central concerns, but their usual pieces appear rarely. A 20th century string work often figures in the mix, usually British and friendly. And, unlike many modern-instrument ensembles these days, Carver and company aren’t afraid to dally into the Baroque era as well. Thus it was Saturday.

The attitude implicit is one of lively exploration, and everything presented doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. It is difficult to think of another ensemble in these parts that would give an airing to Gerald Finzi’s “Eclogue” for piano and strings (with Carver at the keyboard), certainly an inconsequential though pleasantly pastoral work from this undervalued British master. But it filled a gap in our picture of the composer.

Principal oboist Leslie Reed stepped forward for Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, in a pointedly articulated, sculpted and buoyant reading. She wrote her own spiffy cadenzas.

Carver opened with the Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 6, by Corelli, her strings achieving an easy euphony, while the stereophonic effects in the violins were brought off with dash. A smartly accented, daintily punctuated performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 59, “Fire,” closed things out, with Jon Titmus and Paul Stevens nailing the finale’s high-flying horn parts.