Mozart Orchestra a Small Treasure

Despite the disappointments of an underwhelming soloist and a small audience, Orange County’s home-grown Mozart Classical Orchestra turned in a charming performance Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in the opening concert of its 16th season.

On the bill was music of Rossini and Beethoven perfectly suited to the strengths and appeal of this ensemble. Concentrating on works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this small treasure--founded by conductor Ami Porat--provides a perfect foil to the often-bombastic Pacific Symphony.

Though music of the classical and early Romantic eras may be simpler and more formal than all that was to follow, it is difficult to play well.

Players know that with fewer than two dozen strings and a handful of winds on stage, every part is distinct and every moment of the music is exposed.

Witness the opening of the first work on Thursday’s program: “La Cambiale di Matrimonio,” one of the few Rossini overtures that has not been played to death in American concert halls. Strings quickly give way to a delicate, leaping horn solo that, though mercilessly difficult, must be played quietly.

The orchestra’s principal horn, Kristy Morrell, soared effortlessly through the solo--a high level of performance later echoed across the orchestra, with clean and solid playing in all sections.

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Less impressive was soloist Joel Wizansky, who joined the players for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. It was a timid reading of the piece, marked by a lack of dynamic and expressive contrast and only so-so technical prowess.

Granted, this is not Liszt. Subtlety is required. But in pianistic terms, Wizansky too often spoke in a monotone when he should have been singing.

Rapid runs were more often blurred than clean, and slow passages were more often sluggish than lyrical.

While his cadenza in the first movement showed a hint of life, Wizansky’s performance overall was virtually sleep-inducing.

The orchestra shook off the torpor after intermission with a lively reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, the most classical of a collection of symphonies that today defines the transition from that era to the bolder Romanticism.

Apart from a handful of glitches in ensemble and intonation, the performance was virtually faultless. The lower strings were eloquent and sonorous, the winds sparkling and violins precise from the stately first movement to the rollicking finale.

Porat and his brave band will repeat the concert Sunday at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.