MUSIC REVIEW : COLORADO STRINGS FAIL TO SPARKLE

In its most compelling guise, chamber music is a delicate balance of passion and refinement. By the intermission of Sunday night’s concert by the Colorado String Quartet, it appeared that this ensemble of four young American women was all polish and little fervor.

They had opened their Sherwood Auditorium program with Mozart’s unremarkable F Major String Quartet, K. 590, playing it as almost a caricature of Classical style: all polite gesture, mellifluous sonorities and surface emotions. While they charted persuasively the intellectual topography of Shostakovich’s Fifth String Quartet, when the intrepid Russian composer put on his Cossack boots and danced to the earthy strains of a village fiddler, the members of the Colorado Quartet kept their dainty ballet slippers on.

Fortunately, after this unsatisfying beginning, the Colorado Quartet returned with pianist Anton Kuerti and turned out a ravishing performance of Franck’s F Minor Piano Quintet. It was well worth the wait for the nearly full house at Sherwood.

Kuerti proved to be both the catalyst and foundation for this telling, exciting interpretation of the Franck piece. Though he could have easily dominated this ensemble, he wisely eschewed the temptation. Kuerti brought authority to even the smallest motive, and he infused those oft-repeated and varied Franck themes with supple, subtle direction.

When the piano part required strength, Kuerti let loose an assured thunder that gave the impression there was still much more in reserve. His textures were models of clarity and logical construction. The piece was his, but he never flaunted it.

If the Vienna-born pianist sounded overly meticulous in his appearance in August in the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s Summerfest ‘86, he redeemed himself Sunday evening.

A sublime serenity in the slow middle movement and a stylish re-creation of the quintet’s effusive salon passions were the string players’ most laudable contributions to the collaboration.

In their local debut, the Colorado Quartet--so named because two of its members are from Colorado--proved less than smashing. Although they have won various competitions and awards, their performance level is not yet major league.

Their sense of ensemble and ability to fuse a homogeneous sonority are evident strengths, but solos too frequently lacked definition and conviction. Violist Francesca Martin was the exception to this complaint, however. Her opulent timbre and shapely solo turns acquitted her at every turn.

Cellist Sharon Prater had some poignant moments in the Shostakovich, but her pitch in the cello’s upper range was untrustworthy. Violinists Julie Rosenfeld and Deborah Redding lacked the assertive leadership expected from this half of a string quartet.