L.A. Chamber Orchestra Gets Irreverent

Even in a season when many programs have been altered due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the reshuffling of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s lineup at the Alex Theatre on Saturday night was unusually thorough.

William Bolcom’s “Commedia” for (almost)18th century orchestra (so the title says) was originally supposed to kick off the season-opener last Sept. 22. But after Sept. 11, the piece suddenly disappeared from the program, only to resurface Saturday.

For anyone who wondered why, the proof was in the listening. This was Bolcom at his most mischievous, equipped with a saucy little tune, weird slapstick jokes, a haunting violin duet disturbed by clatterings from the orchestra, aleatoric chirping ... well, you get it; it would have been too irreverent for some sensibilities last fall.

In any case, it was great to hear it again after a long absence from local stages, and conductor Jeffrey Kahane gave it a fine, spiffy ride.

Then, when violinist Pamela Frank, recovering from an injury, had to cancel only a couple of weeks ago, the orchestra was lucky to find another violin star--and a locally trained one at that--Leila Josefowicz.

So out went the Zwilich Violin Concerto and Dvorak Romance, replaced by a work that Josefowicz recently recorded: Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

It was a fascinating performance, with big contrasts between the cool, almost disembodied approach to the lyrical passages and the jolts of energy and drive in the first movement and slug-it-out finale--a concept that might have been better-suited for Prokofiev’s more acerbic Violin Concerto No.1.

Yet even at her most abrasive, Josefowicz displayed amazing control, hitting every note right in tune.

Finally came the only remnant of the original program, an exhilarating race through the 18-year-old Schubert’s Symphony No. 3, dispatched with sharp accents and a solid bass end.