Music Review : L.A. Chamber Orchestra Shows Fondness for Haydn

IRVINE —  Along with works of Bach and Mozart, the music of Haydn has long been a specialty of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since its first season in 1969. With a succession of music directors and guest conductors, Haydn’s scores, especially, of course, the symphonies, have appeared frequently on LACO programs, performed stylishly and with that strong affection characteristic of the composer’s advocates.

The tenure of Christof Perick has not changed this specialization. So, there was Haydn again, Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre at UCI (with repeats scheduled in other venues, Friday and tonight), giving focus and providing a climax to a program that had begun with a new work by Joan Tower and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27.

Perick’s incisive leadership and the orchestra’s textured, carefully detailed playing created high luster on the Symphony No. 103 (“Drumroll”), a masterpiece never overexposed, at least in Southern California.

The conductor’s directness and the ensemble’s polished musical surfaces seemed to match Haydn’s irrepressible inventiveness, and proved bracing. Performances this tight, this taut, happen seldom. Among many other felicities, this one could boast the resplendent solo contribution of concertmaster Ralph Morrison.

Tower’s new “Duets,” commissioned by and dedicated to LACO, is a 22-minute essay-in-tone, utilizing a number of duo-combinations in its eventful progress through a number of climactic points surrounded by dynamic recessions. It is busy and attractive and seems to be seeking, through an unexpressed musical narrative, a point of rest it never attains. The 57-year-old American composer’s gifts and accomplishment are never in question; still, some of her works are more compelling, more urgently stated, than this one.

Garrick Ohlsson was the perfectly competent, mellow-sounding soloist in Mozart’s B-flat Piano Concerto, yet his performance--on a huge Bosendorfer piano that looked like a limo on the small IBT stage--seemed to go nowhere, and in no hurry.

Was it merely a lack of energy and inspiration on the part of the pianist? We know the piece works; we heard the orchestra play it handsomely, and watched Ohlsson put down all the notes sensibly and reliably. Nevertheless, this reading remained earthbound.

* L.A. Chamber Orchestra, Christof Perick conducting, repeats this program at Ambassador Auditorium, 300 W. Green St., Pasadena, tonight at 8:30, (213) 622-7001; $29-$36.