MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. Philharmonic Chamber Society at Gindi

The handsomely constructed program offered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society at Gindi Auditorium on Monday was an occasion for taking pleasure in the music itself, without the distracting presence of big-name performers and the high expectations--and frequently, disappointments--they engender.

It was an evening to savor Poulenc, Faure and, to a lesser extent, Prokofiev.

Oboist David Weiss, bassoonist David Breidenthal and pianist Alpha Hockett Walker set the tone by flicking out Poulenc’s 1926 Trio in a neatly balanced reading, responsive to the composer’s wit and unconcerned with whether his lyric statements are sentimental or parodies of sentimentality. A big tune is a big tune, and they projected the whopper in the middle movement with becoming breadth.

Faure’s C-minor Piano Quartet ended the evening on a different Gallic note, surging, sighing and singing rapturously in the hands of pianist Armen Guzelimian--as stylish and forceful a chamber pianist as this part of the world offers--and an exceptionally polished Philharmonic string ensemble consisting of violinist Mitchell Newman, violist Evan Wilson and cellist Barry Gold.

The concert’s problems were concentrated at its midsection, in Prokofiev’s duskily gorgeous String Quartet in B minor.

Led with slapdash brilliance, at breakneck tempos by violinist Mischa Lefkowitz, the composer’s chamber masterpiece was rudely cuffed about in its first movement and came unglued in the second.

Second violinist Yun Tang was able to sustain the frenetic pace without damage to her sweet, firm tone and violist Ralph Fielding stayed the course with honor largely intact. But cellist Stephen Custer buckled under the strain, while Lefkowitz proved his own as well as the ensemble’s most potent adversary, forcing his tone mercilessly and playing havoc with intonation.

The ensemble did settle down to a coherent account of the slow, exquisitely sad finale. But a third of Prokofiev’s quartet isn’t enough.