Music and Dance Reviews : Philharmonic Chamber Series Opens at Gindi

Age and the assurance that comes with it provided the subtext for the season-opening concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society.

The Monday night program brought together pieces by Bach, Haydn and Villa-Lobos written in their 60s, and an early work by Beethoven. The technical mastery and authoritative expressiveness of the older composers proved strongly evident.

The performances, by ad hoc Philharmonic ensembles--as usual, in Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism--revealed uniform polish and persuasiveness.

Haydn’s Piano Trio in C, Hob. XV: 21, was the evening’s highlight; music that goes down easier would be hard to find, and the reading underlined that quality. The performers--oboist Barbara Winters on piano, Tze-Koong Wang, violin, Barry Gold, cello--judiciously avoided brilliance, in a warm and lively performance.

Villa-Lobos’ “Assobio a Jato,” a by turns sultry, Impressionistic and frenetic duet, offers equal opportunities for display and arching lyricism to its protagonists. Flutist Janet Ferguson and cellist Gold gave it point and pliancy, most especially in the Adagio.

The concert opened with trombonist Ralph Sauer’s fluid transcriptions for brass quintet of selections from Bach’s “Die Kunst der Fuge,” in long-breathed and dramatic readings.

Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Opus 16--not a memorable listen--brought the concert to a lulling conclusion despite the gracious and fluent performance from Alpha Hockett Walker, piano, David Weiss, oboe, Michele Zukovsky, clarinet, Carol Drake, horn, and David Breidenthal, bassoon.