Mozart Orchestra Opens Season With Robust Beethoven’s Seventh

Lucinda Carver and the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra opened their new season Saturday evening at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre with an outgoing concert of extroverted passions and confident aspiration. Not so long ago, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony might have seemed beyond their scope, at least sonically and temperamentally, but a robust reading of that landmark score capped the evening.

There was, of course, some loss of weight and mass in a performance by a 36-piece ensemble, smallish even by historical standards. But then again, that may not be missed in a work Wagner called “the apotheosis of the dance.” On the plus side was supreme transparency of texture--the contrapuntal conversations of the Allegretto, for example, emerged with uncommon clarity.

Carver certainly capitalized on the limberness of her orchestra. All the ebullience and zest one expects of the work were there in her interpretation, and also a clear sense of structure and motivation.

Her orchestra delivered this with a ready, expressive grace. High speed and a tightly clipped style combined to produce occasional squeaks, but generally this was a sweet-sounding and articulate performance, rich in nuance and neat in detail.

There was also Mozart, to be sure. Alan Gampel tamed the furies of the tempestuous C-minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, perhaps all too well. His playing was as balanced in spirit as it was in sound, a few lapses near the end notwithstanding. It was noble, intelligent and a shade reticent--a sort of contrarian’s approach to a piece usually milked for grand passions.

Carver and Co. accommodated Gampel’s view equably, while asserting more aggressive ideas of their own, particularly in the numerous wind solos. To open, they offered a nimble account of the “Magic Flute” overture.