Pops’ Lockhart Pilots Steady Performance

IRVINE —  He may be conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra, but can he conduct real music? That’s the kind of prejudice Keith Lockhart will have to face (Arthur Fiedler did), at least for a while.

But perhaps such things weren’t on the young conductor’s mind when he appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. His mainstream program didn’t seem chosen by someone who had much to prove. It had no flash. It had neither emotional highs nor lows. It had few technical hurdles. It was pleasant, but not demanding or especially thought-provoking.

Certainly his opener, Wagner’s domesticated “Siegfried Idyll,” wasn’t designed to get anyone too excited (except maybe Cosima). Lockhart coaxed diaphanous textures and sensitive articulations from the ensemble, in a well-prepared, affectionate reading. That’s about as far as it went.

His interpretation of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony had a steady gaze and regular pulse, highlighting the work’s more formal aspect over its creative exuberance. The orchestra played quite well though--the seams were finished, the edges nicely dovetailed. The whole thing turned out genial and competent. Ho hum.

Cellist Carter Brey’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations was, by some distance, the apex of the evening. His playing was musical straight talk--open, honest, illustrating the large gap between mere competence and probing simplicity. He dealt in nouns, not adjectives. The well-worn music was alive from first note to last, technically executed beyond reproach, and Lockhart and the L.A. Chamber, accompanying handily, sounded like they had caught some of that spirit.

* The orchestra performs the same program today at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, (213) 622-7001, ext. 215, 8 p.m. $10-$36.