L.A. Chamber Orchestra Stays True to Sources

In its “preseason spectacular,” the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra undertook a matter of score-settling, performing two American orchestral chestnuts in their original chamber versions. Leaner can be meaner, not to mention truer to the source, in the case of Copland’s 1943 “Appalachian Spring” for 13 instruments and the rarely played jazz band version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” originally written at the behest of jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman and only later refitted to its popular orchestral arrangement.

Friday night, the orchestra performed with customary aplomb in the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena, a majestic and resonant space--sometimes too much so, sinking certain instruments into a sonic soup. As part of the “Neighborhood Concerts” program, the orchestra repeated the concert at the West Angeles Church and the World Agape Church on consecutive nights.

Guest conductor William Eddins, an assured presence on the podium, coaxed a pastoral gutsiness with the Copland and then also handled the piano part on the Gershwin, demonstrating fervor and a fluid way with written notes--in a jazz player’s manner. He attended to his twin duties like a man happily possessed.

After intermission, historical gears shifted and personnel expanded exponentially for Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass in d Minor. The orchestral forces were bolstered by the Cambridge Singers, with soloists soprano Hae Kyung Hwang, alto Aleta Braxton, tenor Jong-Hyun Lee and baritone Nmon Ford-Levine. The concert went from lean to grand, in scale and feeling.