MUSIC REVIEW : PHILHARMONIC GROUP PLAYS AT GINDI

The program was not designed for instant popularity, but the concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society in Gindi Auditorium of the University of Judaism on Wednesday night nevertheless attracted a large and faithful following.

The aims of the program seemed to be several. One was to depict 20th-Century music at various levels. The elder generation was represented by Francis Poulenc’s 1932 Sextet for piano and wind instruments. Andre Previn was presented as an example of the middle generation with his 1974 “Four Outings for Brass,” while the present moment was exemplified by the String Quartet No. 1 of John Harbison, who is the Philharmonic’s new music adviser and director of its New Music Group.

Previn’s work, originally commissioned by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, could be regarded as one of the increasingly rare manifestations of the once strong urge to classicize pop-music idioms. The echoes of jazz are fairly faint in the first third and fourth movements, and even the “Blues Tempo” second movement moans with untypical reserve.

It is all very neat, very clever and very professional. It strikes out in no new directions and is decidedly eclectic in its choice of styles and attitudes. It exploits the solo instruments in entertaining fashion, and the juicy opportunities were fully realized by Thomas Stevens and Rob Roy McGregor, trumpets; Ralph Sauer, trombone, and Roger Bobo, tuba.

Harbison writes of his String Quartet: “I leave to the commentators to discover if any of the sense of isolation, disillusionment or meditative transport which attended the composition got into the work.”

This commentator can reply that of these qualities he could clearly detect only a certain amount of meditation not particularly transporting. The music is well crafted but it enforces no decisive statements, and the indeterminate movement endings are not of much assistance in grasping the composer’s possible meanings.

The Daria Quartet, consisting of Tamara Chernyak and Paul Stein, violins; Evan Wilson, viola, and Howard Colf, cello, appeared to cope with the piece as the composer intended.

Poulenc’s Sextet remains fresh, perky, saucy and delightful. Previn’s smooth and literate piano was tastefully supported by Janet Ferguson, flute; Barbara Winters, oboe; Michele Zukovsky, clarinet; David Breidenthal, bassoon, and William Lane, horn.