Sejong Soloists: The Elegant Little Orchestra That Could

The International Sejong Soloists, an 11-member string orchestra that made its local debut Tuesday night, is a polished ensemble that produces beautiful sounds and projects high spirits (the ensemble replaced the originally announced Berlin Chamber Orchestra).

The conductorless band--originally sponsored by the Samsung Electronics Corp. of Korea, but now independent--plays under the artistic direction of Hyo Kang, an associate of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York. It gave a most impressive first appearance, a program of music by Mozart, Haydn and Grieg aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. It was presented on the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series by the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College.

Two of the 11 players appeared as soloists, cellist Ole Akahoshi in Haydn’s C-major Concerto, and violinist Xiao-Dong Wang in Mozart’s Concerto No. 1.

Technical solidity, fluent passage work and perfect intonation were just the beginning of these performances, seconded energetically by the orchestra (these internationally bred but New York-based players have an endless supply of vigor). Akahoshi, in particular, made a large and edgeless tone of a buttered-rum quality, and conquered all the many hurdles of his assignment with panache.

By itself, the little orchestra showed elegant accomplishment in its playing of Mozart’s D-major Divertimento, K. 136, and in Grieg’s Suite, “From Holberg’s Time.”

Appropriately, in the high-ceilinged Moderne ambience of the Queen Mary’s Grand Salon, the encore was George Gershwin’s “Lullaby,” another felicitous relic of the 1930s.