MUSIC REVIEW : Disciplined Work From Young Talent

While most youth orchestras are noted for the energy and enthusiasm of their playing, the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra offered a decidedly cool and calculated demonstration of its talents Wednesday night in Bing Theater at the L.A County Museum of Art.

Conductor Lara Webber,) still a student herself (a master’s candidate at USC), led her youthful group (no one over age 25) in a compact program also on the cool end of the spectrum--music by Ravel, Ibert and Haydn.

The 43-member chamber orchestra gave tidy execution to Webber’s obviously disciplined interpretations, suitable to the music at hand. A slight tinge of the careful reverence thoughtful and gifted students bring to music did hang over the proceedings, though. Perhaps the mature program didn’t strike profound chords with these musicians.

Certainly Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” with its meticulously etched sonorities and neo-classical evocation of 17th- and 18th-Century dance, is a work that appeals more directly to the head than heart. The delicate, rhythmically jaunty and well-spoken performance by the ensemble captured that quality nicely.

Webber and orchestra’s account of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “The Miracle,” proved robust and frothy as need be, and, with violins right and left, the noble counterpoint of the Andante unwound impressively. Throughout, balances were poised, dynamics gradated and technical hurdles, both individual and ensemble, easily cleared.

Elizabeth Rowe was the remarkable soloist in Ibert’s scampering Flute Concerto of 1934. She possesses a ringingly focused, silken tone, uses vibrato sparingly and stays within herself lyrically: The music earned its way but it bloomed. Her precise and pointed technique served her well in the running notes of the outer movements. With Webber accompanying handily, this was a nifty performance.