Seasonal Debuts : The Master Chorale and Ventura Symphony’s musical year begins with a high level of professionalism and popular appeal.

Last weekend, the Ventura County Master Chorale kicked off its 1992-93 concert schedule and the Ventura County music season was officially declared open.

This is a significant year in the history of classical music in the county.

Now having survived nicely into its fourth decade in operation, the Ventura County Symphony has been newly mobilized. New conductor Boris Brott, a take-charge Canadian, is full of ideas to make the symphony a more listener-friendly and popular organism.

While in Camarillo, Burns Taft, the redoubtable, founding director of the Master Chorale, ushered his impressive ensemble into its second decade with a piecemeal feast of a concert. This was the ensemble’s first local appearance since its trip to Czechoslovakia and Poland last summer.

Romping through the history of choral music, from the Renaissance through music from the 1980s, from solemnity to silliness, the concert proved to be an easy-going sampler.

The program, stuffed with more than 20 discrete pieces of music, covered the choral front but lacked a sustained emotional core. But an underlying message rang out clearly: The Master Chorale has ascended to a high level of professionalism and collective expressiveness.

For all of its musical luster, the Chorale’s concert last Saturday at the Bill Esty Center in Camarillo suffered from arid acoustics and the generic atmosphere of a multipurpose room. No doubt, when the Master Chorale repeats its program at the Mission this Sunday, the setting will be more accommodating.

The prevailing mood was light, as accented by the concert’s title, “California Garden Party.” Around the room was the handiwork of resident floral arrangers who worked up designs based on specific pieces on the program.

In general, the concert’s tone seemed more like a spring thing than a musical experience for the dead of autumn. Then again, there is that deceptive seasonal flow in Southern California, so who’s counting?

More than 20 works were packed into the program, starting at the chronological beginning, with a few odes to courtship from the Renaissance.

Early in the proceedings, the full Chorale thinned out to leave the core group, the MasterSingers. They brought out a song of local interest, by UCSB-based composer Emma Lou Diemer. “Cupid Kissed Me” is a sparkling small piece from her California Madrigals song-set from the late ‘70s.

At times, the levity got a bit thick. Comic relief came in the form of composer Gail Kubik’s musical pastries, but as a relief from what?

Amid a de rigueur dose of Rossini (celebrating his 200th birthday), Romantic gusts from Brahms and Schubert and Impressionistic glimmering from Ravel, there were gem-like discoveries on the program.

In Harry Somers’ “She’s Like a Swallow”--a stark, dirge-like folk tune--a simple melody extended into more interesting musical terrain via subtle variations. By contrast, the loopy square-dancing Americana of Walter Ehret’s “Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees” evoked qualities of lustrousness, quaintness and an attractive looniness.

It wasn’t clear why the concert closed with “Hava Nagila.” Equal time? It’s a tune to which time and countless bad renditions haven’t been kind.

Distractions in the room and in the program notwithstanding, the concert was inspiring on the level that counts most. Under Taft, the Chorale has evolved into a fine exemplar of the vocal arts, a model of cohesiveness, balance and vibrancy of tone.

Symphonics, Part Two

At the Oxnard Civic Auditorium two weekends ago, the continuing saga of the Symphony’s Boris Brott era was unfolding. It was one Romantic evening. And it was another sold-out evening. Brott’s populist game plan seems to be working.

The thematic-related projections behind the stage of the first concert had been jettisoned this time, in favor of a shameless plug for a new Symphony sponsor. Alas, it’s hard to argue with acknowledging a patron from the private sector during these hard times in the arts.

The concentrated dose of Romanticism might have, ironically, created a sense of culture shock in Ventura Symphony regulars, accustomed as they are to former conductor Frank Salazar’s broad-minded programming.

Even Ventura-based composer John Biggs’ premiere, “Pastiche, an Overture,” sounded like a fond look backward. Biggs, who also conducted his piece, liberally dotted the work with references to pieces from the symphonic repertoire, from “William Tell Overture” to Richard Strauss to Stravinsky.

The night was also a family affair. Cellist Dennis Brott, the conductor’s brother, and the one responsible for leading the Symphony board to Boris, performed with commanding skill on Saint Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a rococo theme.

Brother Boris took the center stage for the second half, as he brought considerable focus and passion to Sibelius’ programmatic Symphony No. 2 in D major. Through his emphatic reading and the orchestra’s crisp playing, Brott and company seemed to recognize the piece for what it is--a forcefully rendered opus, all tension and repose spelled out in bold letters.

Its heroic conclusion screamed out “Finale!” in a crowded auditorium.

The first brief phase of Brott’s tenure here thus finished, the conductor will return in March. So far, so fine.

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Ventura County Master Chorale, at the San Buenaventura Mission, Sunday at 4 and 8 p.m. For tickets or more information, call 653-7282.