London Chamber players in standout performance

Though it’s unusual to find a group of classical musicians standing throughout a performance, the London Chamber Orchestra made it seem like a perfectly natural — if not necessary — part of last night’s concert at the Maine Center for the Arts. If anything, the high-octane craft of this sinewy 19-person troupe was, indeed, just right for making the audience feel a little sheepish for having to sit. Happily sheepish, that is.

Music director and violinist Christopher Warren-Green, previously concertmaster for the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, led these zesty and lanky musicians with a particularly potent use of his eyes and the neck of his violin. Consequently, the tight ensemble trickily balanced individual expression and familial unity to produce sounds so fine they sent a good shiver down the spine.

It began with an enormously rhythmic approach to Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E Minor. If the adagio here didn’t evoke images akin to the poetry of orange afternoons or sweet sea breezes, then nothing ever will.

An additional benefit to the Haydn was the way it hinted at the astute technical skill that would become seriously clear with the handling of deep moods and contradicting tones in Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C Minor, Op. 110a. For Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, by Estonian composer Avro Part, the group turned meditatively sinuous and mournful.

Not enough good can be said about the excitement of the final piece, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for Violin and Viola, K. 364. It was truly a revelation — of both the music and the good spirits of this group. No one could possibly have resisted a smile at some point in this virtuoso performance. The solo parts were mightily well-enacted by Warren-Green and violist Roger Chase. But there’s no denying the triumph of the entire finale.

The concert was a substantial accomplishment by the physically and musically fit London Chamber Orchestra. The contrasts of music periods and the combination of player acumen were enough to rightfully get everyone on their feet.