Music and Dance Reviews : Schifrin Leads YMF Debut Orchestra at Royce HALL

Since the founding of the Debut Orchestra three decades ago, provocative programming has been a staple of the Young Musicians Foundation-sponsored ensemble. And so it continues to be, as evidenced Sunday afternoon in the fresh agenda put together by Lalo Schifrin, current music director of the organization.

The core of this program, performed in Royce Hall at UCLA, were concertos by Mozart and William Kraft, works written in 1778 and 1983, respectively. Schifrin surrounded them with important musical relics from the 1930s, Olivier Messiaen’s “Les Offrandes Oubliees” and Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” symphony.

The young players again met a set of demanding instrumental and ensemble challenges gamely, and with strong resources. True, Royce Hall in the late 1980s helps any instrumental ensemble in terms of cohesive and resonant sound, but the basic materials have to be present. The current Debut band seems able to compete with memories of the better foundation ensembles of the past.

It showed its stuff in balanced, virtually transparent readings of the works that opened and closed the event--a neat and careful revival of Messiaen’s “symphonic meditation” and a genuinely accomplished and showy reading of Hindemith’s instrumental masterpiece, led with finesse by Schifrin.

In Kraft’s Concerto for Timpani, a member of the ensemble, Kathryn Dayak, stepped forward to make a solo appearance. One could not be surprised at the great variety of colorful musical effects Kraft achieves in these three contrasting movements, but one had to admire the ease and projection of Dayak’s virtuosic performance. Schifrin and the orchestra assisted positively.

In Mozart’s Concerto for flute and harp, K. 299, foundation alumnae Louise di Tullio and Gayle Levant assumed the soloists’ duties authoritatively, finding even more delights in this familiar work than some listeners may remember reside therein. Except for occasional swamping of the delicate harp lines, the orchestra’s accompaniment lent reliable support.