Series Takes a Lively Highlands Detour

Music With a View, the summer concert series at the Getty Center, took a look at Scotland on Saturday. Or rather, at the way continental composers addressed Scottish music and inspiration. Soprano Kris Gould and tenor Daniel Plaster sang fascinating arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven, allowing Gregory Maldonado and the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra a revitalized context for orchestral standards by Mendelssohn.

Haydn and Beethoven wrote hundreds of song arrangements for a canny Scottish entrepreneur, bringing their own styles to bear on received texts and tunes with striking results. Gould and Plaster sang 11 with clarity and animation, including the affecting duet “Duncan Gray” and Gould’s lilting romp through “Highland Harry,” both by Beethoven.

The often deliciously bent accompaniments seemed to catch pianist and series host Robert Winter, violinist Maldonado and cellist Robert Tueller not always completely prepared, collectively or individually, and there was even some uncertainty as to which verse each singer might take. The amplification, however, brought the singers way out in front, and their vivacity carried the night.

Setting aside his violin, Maldonado conducted Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture and “Scottish” Symphony from the podium. He seemed taken with a tidal idea of using a dramatic ebb and flow, imbuing both works with strong contrasts. This scheme worked wonders with the Overture, but over a longer span Maldonado’s play with tempos robbed the symphony of momentum at crucial moments.

His orchestra gave him everything he wanted, if not always what he needed, particularly in the way of self-starting rhythmic definition. With 36 players it mustered all the vehemence Mendelssohn demanded, though not all the finesse.The woodwinds, bright and full of character, proved a consistent glory.