Music and Dance Reviews : Barlow Bradford, New Orchestra in Second Concert

Barlow Bradford, a young, California-trained conductor, founded an ensemble called the Millennial Arts Orchestra, then led it in an inaugural concert last year at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Over the weekend, Bradford brought the orchestra to the Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo. Both conductor and ensemble made a good impression.

But neither justified the founding. Certainly, the kind of conservative program Bradford put together for this second outing--John Adams’ so-called fox-trot, “The Chairman Dances,” Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8--needs no more champions, or exposures.

And, if this agenda was well-executed by the youngish members of the ensemble, their performances in no striking way exceeded the higher standards of other post-training orchestras in our Southland musical neighborhood.

Without making a strong individual statement about any of this familiar music, Bradford seemed competent and reasonably well-prepared for the job he set for himself.

He must have had adequate rehearsal, for there were few glitches in the performances his attentive orchestra gave. The string choir he has put together is clearly made up of accomplished players; soloists met all challenges gamely, and the wind band behaved in a civilized way.

Pianist Alan Chow brought polish, power, technique and bravura to the many demands of Rachmaninoff’s F-sharp-minor Concerto, yet failed to make it sing convincingly. The dry acoustics of the hall may have had something to do with this, but the general impression Chow made on this occasion was one of impersonality.