Music and Dance Reviews : L.A. Chamber Orchestra Saturday at Ambassador

Everything was right about the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert at Ambassador Auditorium on Saturday: the balanced, unhackneyed program, the vitality and warmth of Sir Charles Mackerras’ conducting, the trio of soloists. Above all there was the orchestra itself, playing with the sort of strong, compact, projectile ensemble tone that commands the listener’s attention at every turn.

If the program had a high point, attribute it to the rare rapport achieved by soprano Benita Valente, Mackerras and the LACO strings in Britten’s “Les Illuminations.” Valente’s penetrating artistry and pristine French enunciation illuminated (pun intended) every subtle bending in this gorgeously sinuous creation. The New York-based singer was also in prime vocal form--firm and pure in tone, easily surmounting the heights, capped by a ravishingly floated, pianissimo, high B-flat in “Phrase.” A special word of appreciation, too, for concertmaster Ralph Morrison’s silken violin solos.

Earlier on, we were treated to a deft reading of Stravinsky’s snotty little “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto and the Duo Concertino by the octogenarian Richard Strauss, with Gary Gray and Kenneth Munday, respectively clarinet and bassoon principals of the orchestra, expertly, affectionately tracing its sweet meanderings.

The evening concluded with an invigoratingly brash, flawlessly executed dash by Mackerras and his inspired charges through Mozart’s Symphony No. 34, K. 338: fast, comically furious in its outer movements, yearningly songful in the central andante.