Imaginative first try at first chair

Margaret Batjer, the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, stepped into the role of leader for the first time in her tenure Saturday night at the Alex Theatre, directing traffic from the first chair.

For the chamber orchestra, the setup was nothing new; this was the way Iona Brown conducted business here in the ‘80s and ‘90s -- with variable results.

Yet Batjer’s first try worked out beautifully, not only in terms of the polished, zesty and mostly problem-free playing from the all-string ensemble, but also in the imaginative programming, a surprisingly inclusive sweep through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

And all were transcriptions, at that.

The group’s plush string tone and vibratos, coupled with harpsichord continuo, in Handel’s Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 11, sounded like a retro journey to Baroque performance practices of four decades ago. But it made sense in this context, followed by lush renditions of string orchestral transcriptions of Mendelssohn’s brief, pleasing Capriccio and Fugue; Bartok’s catchy Rumanian Folk Dances; and John Corigliano’s unrepentantly Romantic “Voyage.”

These days, a transcription of choice for orchestras that want to perform a Beethoven string quartet seems to be Mahler’s blown-up edition of the Quartet No. 11, with its hefty bass underpinning. It does work, though, and the well-upholstered string textures did not cancel out Beethoven’s brusque furioso element.