In New Home, Mozart Players Celebrate Bach

Long ensconced in the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra moves into some acoustically spiffy new digs, the Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School, this season--and that’s going to mean a big boost for its sound and profile. Though the first concert there with the full orchestra takes place Nov. 30, music director Lucinda Carver, two singers and four chamber players from the ensemble officially launched the residency Monday night with an all-J.S. Bach program--tied to the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death.

The program amounted to a few scoops from a vast ocean, dipping into the cantatas, raiding “The Musical Offering,” adding a tenor aria from the “Christmas” Oratorio and the Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1028--a small-scale Bach sampler that nevertheless made a unified, affirmative whole. The most consistent thread throughout the program was Carver herself, who played the harpsichord continuo lines with a rhythmic animation that definitely had a bracing effect on her players.

Jonathan Mack, whose tenor has gained some heft over the years without losing its lyric quality, delivered a fine account of the entire joyful Cantata No. 189, augmented by some beautifully articulated passages from oboist Leslie Reed. As if attuned especially to the Zipper’s resonant acoustics, Camille King’s soprano soared delectably in excerpts from the Cantatas Nos. 210, 36 and 110--the latter a spirited encore duet with Mack.

Roger Lebow used a Baroque cello for the Viola da Gamba Sonata, producing a light, somewhat fragile tone that sometimes did not carry clearly over Carver’s lusty harpsichord in the allegro movements. And the Trio Sonata from “The Musical Offering” featured polished, lilting work from Lebow, flutist Robert Shulgold and violinist Aimee Kreston.