LACO produces a cool ‘Desert Wind’

The applause for Jeffrey Kahane as he made his entrance into Royce Hall on Sunday night was louder and longer than usual -- as well it should have been. The weekend marked his first pair of concerts with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since being forced to sit out most of the spring due to his doctor’s diagnosis of severe hypertension. And if there were any constraints on his normal energetic conducting style, they weren’t noticeable Sunday.

Kahane was back just in time to unveil the latest LACO Sound Investment commission, a 14-minute tone poem by Austrian-born, Los Angeles-based composer Gernot Wolfgang called “Desert Wind.” Talk about a fortuitous title. Desert winds have been very much on our minds lately, what with the ominously early arrival of the Santa Anas accompanied by wildfires in Griffith Park and Gorman.

Wolfgang’s arresting, jazz-drenched new score seemed to capture at once the realities and myths of Los Angeles during fire season.

The winds themselves were exactingly summoned up by the swirling strings and horns, with a snare drum rat-a-tat-tatting away. At other times, the strings were caught in a state of sustained unresolved tension, animated by chugging grooves in the percussion. There was a jazzy French horn solo for Richard Todd and a tricky oboe solo for Allan Vogel, who stood when they played as if in a big band.

The sustained string tension and percussion punctuations reminded one of the music of another transplanted local notable, William Kraft. This piece could also serve as the score for an archetypical 1950s L.A. detective thriller -- music that’s somehow cool and sultry at the same time, suggesting danger in the palm tree paradise. Wherever your imagination takes you, Wolfgang supplies the fuel -- “Desert Wind” ought to have legs beyond its premiere.

The summer theme continued with Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” with “Summer” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” sandwiched in between the second and third movements as a “control” sample.

Here the spotlight was turned over to Lindsay Deutsch, a 21-year-old violinist who grabbed that light with a bold, aggressive tone and a body language that speaks loud and clear to audiences raised on rock videos. Deutsch has the technical equipment and temperament for a big career, but she overdid it -- underlining almost every phrase, pushing Piazzolla’s sentimentality and aggression too far, putting exclamation points all over the performance to the point where it became exhausting to watch her.

Kahane signed off the concert -- and the season -- with a robust, polished rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No. 98, grandly stepping in to play the tiny harpsichord part himself near the end of the jokey finale.