L.A. Mozart Orchestra Closes With Rarities

The Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, which gave its season finale Saturday night in the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, has a distinctive sound and performance style. For an ensemble that meets just a half a dozen or so times a year, this is saying a lot.

It is, of course, attributable to the strong leadership of music director Lucinda Carver. An accomplished pianist before she was a conductor, Carver has a hands-on approach to orchestral performance. She melds a performance, controls all aspects of it, as if the orchestra were an instrument to play on.

As is typical with Carver, the program, devoted entirely to Mozart on this occasion, reached into the recesses of the repertoire. Mozart’s only and rarely heard ballet, “Les Petits Riens,” was followed by three equally rare arias, sung by Malcolm MacKenzie. The “Jupiter” Symphony took the anchor leg.

The ballet was written to local tastes when Mozart visited Paris in 1778. Its scenario has to do with Cupid, shepherdesses and silly games--and Mozart wrote delicate music in keeping, filled with pillowy soft pizzicatos, flute solos echoed offstage and simple tra-la-la tunes. Carver and orchestra matched Mozart’s daintiness point by point.

MacKenzie, a resident artist with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, sang “Mentre ti lascio” and “Un bacio di mano” (both insertion arias) and “Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo,” an aria removed from “Cosi fan Tutte,” with lively expression and assured voice. His baritone had a firm resonance to it and his diction rang clearly.

In the “Jupiter,” the playing grew rigorous, the musicians intently following their leader and Carver full of ideas.

She’s a subtle yet crisp musician who shapes things gently and elegantly and makes sure the music is presented with clarity and concision. Her amiable, quietly glowing account of the Andante cantabile particularly pleased, as did her increasingly intense account of the finale. In short, a “Jupiter” worthy of its name.