L.A. Chamber Society Lineup Samples the Zany and Sedate

Usually the line dividing the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Society and the contemporary-minded Green Umbrella series is a fairly firm one. Now and then, though, the line becomes refreshingly blurred, as was the case Monday night at the Gindi Auditorium, when a work by a--gasp!--living, active composer was the centerpiece of a Chamber Music Society concert.

Yet Stephen Hartke’s sometimes acidic, warmly humorous, subtly zany, incorrigibly free-thinking “The King of the Sun” (1988) for piano quartet did not impose dreaded rigors upon this audience. Indeed, the USC-based Hartke seems to delight in juxtaposing and somehow interrelating all kinds of things from several eras--medieval-sounding chords, hints of jazz, prepared-piano plunking effects, lots of jagged Stravinsky-inspired astringency. The Dunsmuir Piano Quartet has made a recording of the piece for New World, yet violinist Elizabeth Baker, violist Leticia Oaks Strong, cellist Brent Samuel and pianist Vicki Ray took that model a bit further Monday by underlining the arch passages and leaning more into the jazzy syncopations.

Hindemith’s irreverent, bouncy Kleine Kammermusik for Wind Quintet made an appropriate prelude and companion to Hartke’s work, accomplishing similar things with a completely different lineup. However, the fluid, placid performance by Catherine Ransom (flute), Marion Arthur Kuszyk (oboe), Lorin Levee (clarinet), Michele Grego (bassoon) and Brian Drake (horn) could have used more bounce.

In place of the announced Hindemith Duet for Viola and Cello, cellist Gloria Lum and bassist Christopher Hanulik inserted Rossini’s Duet in D for Cello and Bass, which is a more gracefully written piece than you would guess. Heavyweight in texture yet light and athletic in line, it even rewards fans of Rossini’s operas with passages in the coda that could fit neatly into one of the overtures.

Violinist Stacey Wetzel, violist Minor L. Wetzel and cellist Barry Gold concluded the evening with an uneventful performance of Beethoven’s String Trio in G, Opus 9, No. 1--competently played but without much rhythmic momentum or soaring rhetoric. Even the whirlwind finale sounded sedate.