Anderson Quartet Generous in Brahms

With a program of Beethoven, Shostakovich and Brahms, the Anderson Quartet, in residence at Cal State Los Angeles, attracted a sizable audience to Luckman Fine Arts Complex Saturday night and sent them home happy.

This young string quartet--Marianne Henry and Marisa McLeod,) violins; Diedra Lawrence, viola; and Michael Cameron, cello--offered solidly played but unremarkable readings of Beethoven’s Opus 95 Quartet and Shostakovich’s Seventh to start, but saved the best for last.

In this context, it seemed as if it had taken the generosity of feeling in Brahms’ F-minor Piano Quintet to bring out the best in these musicians. With clear and fluent playing from pianist Paul Van Ness in collaboration, the Anderson gave an invigorating performance, balanced in both its range of emotion and instrumentally.

After a rather tempo-tight opening movement, the players relaxed, the phrasing began to breathe and the music blossomed. An emotional landscape was revealed beyond the notes, captured with a lean, plain-spoken utterance, never false theatrics.

The cooler, more inward works earlier had fared less well. Surface blemishes--mild bouts with intonation and ensemble cohesion--certainly didn’t help Beethoven’s Quartet, sometimes subtitled “Serioso,” but it was more that the work’s stern countenance and tight-fisted philosophizing eluded these players.

Shostakovich’s enigmatic, confidential work, despite some fine playing, emerged somewhat effortful overall, and this will never do for this compact piece, as delicate as a pinpoint.