Music : Mozart Miniature From Angeles Quartet

We haven’t had much out-of-the-way Mozart in this Mozart-saturated year, with performers generally choosing the tried-and-true tourism of familiar works over more adventuresome travel.

Fortunately, the Angeles String Quartet dared off that beaten path Friday with a rare performance of the Piano Concerto in A, K. 414, in its a quattro version--that is, for string quartet and solo pianist, in this case Jeffrey Kahane.

Mozart asserted that both “connoisseurs” and “the less learned cannot fail to be pleased” by this work, and in sanctioning the quartet version--just the string parts from the orchestral accompaniment minus its oboes and horns--the composer intended domestic use. As heard in the Angeles performance, it underlines the work’s “less learned” qualities--its relaxed virtuosity and delicate accompaniment, its easy flow of simple tunes.

The members of the Angeles Quartet--Kathleen Lenski and Roger Wilkie, violins, Brian Dembow, viola, Stephen Erdody, cello--were joined by Nico Abondolo on bass, while Kahane provided unobtrusive, continuo support when not soloing. The results, a gentle lushness and intimacy combined with brisk tempos and sprightly rhythms, turned out memorably pleasing.

Kahane, winner of the 1983 Rubinstein Competition, proved the ideal protagonist for this concerto-in-miniature--he was meticulously expressive, colorful and revealing playful finesse in quick passagework.

He is an ever-attentive Mozart interpreter who inflects the music with the grace and linearity of a jazz musician, yet always plays aptly and without fussiness.

The concert--at Irvine Barclay Theatre on Friday (scheduled to be repeated Saturday at Occidental College)--had opened with a less listener-friendly vehicle, Prokofiev’s enigmatic and seldom-ventured String Quartet No. 1.

After an initial start and stop--the stage lights went out--the Angeles offered a steely yet fluid account, the many hurdles in the first two movements taken in stride, the final Andante gaining impressively in intensity as it went along. Lenski sometimes did not seem firmly in the lead position though she was never in danger of inaudibility.

Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, Opus 96, concluded the program in a warm and, when necessary, vigorous reading, highlighted by a wonderfully arched and luxuriant Lento. And hats off to violist Dembow for his gracious solos and glowing accompaniments.