Music

The Music Guild brings the Bruins to Brentwood

REVIEWED BY CHARLES LONBERGER

The Music Guild opened their Cookies and Coffee recital Series at the University Synagogue in Brentwood on June 13^th, with a performance by the UCLA Virtuosi, which was actually a showcase for various ensembles associated with that campus.

The concert opened with violinist Richard O’Neill and cellist Antonio Lysy playing Beethoven’s passionately harmonic exercise, Eyeglasses. The duo played pristinely together, navigated the selection’s razor sharp variations in tempo adroitly, and were wry in their interpretation of the piece’s playfully repetitious transitions. O’Neill was aggressively jagged and sprightly, while Lysy showed…well, pluck.

Next on stage were the Angeles Saxophone Quartet, which began with an unusual transcription of Bach’s Fugue. Adapted to their instruments, the work had a surprisingly melancholy, mellow timbre. Nonetheless, it was the most intricate work we heard all day, and did not betray the Fugue structure, although the transcription was thin in places. It was followed by Dubois’ Quartuor, a cosmopolitan piece that bordered, but did not cross into, the sleazy; its instrumentation was witty and laced with Swing.

Following an intermission, The UCLA Woodwind Quintet essayed Barber’s quirky Summer Music. It starts dissonant, soon starts squealing, and is flavored by ethnicity; the Quintet was alternately edgy and languid on it, as required. It is a tricky piece, and the Quintet played it to perfection.

Finally, the strings concluded the concert with Tchaikovsky’s String Sextet, a selection of sick sweetness and superficial beauty. Although more mannered than usual with this composer, it contained his signature, camouflaged hysteria. Its veneer was polished; its throbs existed for their own hedonistic sake. Although begun as a remembrance of Italy, it assumed an explicitly shameless Russian character quickly.

Despite flirting with some questionable material (Barber and Dubois), the level of technical accomplishment was high, and resulted in the most coherent and most satisfying Guild concert we have attended in quite some time.

| Home |