Music : L.A. Mozart Orchestra in Season Finale

The Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra ended its season on Saturday with a concert at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre that also marked the end of founder (in 1975) David Keith’s tenure as conductor.

Keith and his players offered plenty of enthusiasm and some ragged ensemble in Mozart’s Divertimento in F, K. 138, and a briskly paced G-minor Symphony, K. 550.

Conductor and orchestra rose to a higher level, however, in supporting soloist Lucinda Carver in the composer’s last piano concerto, the work in B-flat, K. 595.

Carver impressed with fluency, alert rhythmicality and stylish ornamentation, particularly in the sublime slow movement.

But what made this one of the waning season’s special Mozart performances was the pianist’s ability, by means of perfectly gauged dynamics and subtly enhancing rubatos, to project the poignancy and resignation lurking beneath the placid surface of the music. She seemed to capture the very essence of this elusive, unearthly music of parting.