MUSIC REVIEW : Litton, Istomin With Orchestra

Andrew Litton, the young American conductor who has become highly visible through his conducting of orchestras in Great Britain, made his debut with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) over the weekend. Heard at the Friday matinee at the Wiltern Theatre (the program was repeated Saturday night at Ambassador Auditorium), Litton’s mixed program closed the ensemble’s 20th season unimpressively.

What the 29-year-old musician did best, it seemed, was accompany Eugene Istomin--another LACO debutant, at the ripe age of 62--in Beethoven’s C-minor Piano Concerto. This neat and untroubled performance never exceeded a level of solid competence but maintained it throughout.

Otherwise, Litton showed little conviction in his leadership of Joan Tower’s “Island Rhythms” (1985), an Andante sostenuto of Giovanni Bottesini and Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4 (“Mozartiana”). Neither he nor the players brought particular force or wit to Tower’s heavy-handed glibness, though they did deliver a cohesive string sound and structural integrity in the 102-year-old Bottesini piece.

If he had compelling reasons for programming Tchaikovsky’s Mozartean homage, Litton did not reveal them here. The performance moved along smoothly, without untoward incident. And strong solo lines emerged fluently and stylishly from several first-desk players, especially from principal clarinet Gary Gray, who achieved an energy level toward which the conductor might have aimed.