INSTANT ENSEMBLES : PREVIN AND FRIENDS TRY MOZART

Andre Previn and assorted friends from the ranks of the Los Angeles Philharmonic got together Monday night to play some Mozart in Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism.

It was nice. It was comfortable. They played with warmth and obvious dedication. Spirits were high, the music was lovely, the cause noble.

The players seemed to savor this relatively rare opportunity to explore intimate music in a 500-seat hall. The exercise must have represented a welcome respite from their usual impersonal and Gargantuan tasks in a 3,000-seat showplace.

The respite also must have been artistically useful. Chamber music exposes special skills that tend to get smothered by the great orchestral blanket. Chamber music also forces the performers to listen to each other, to respond to each other, to complement each other in a special manner that may be irrelevant in the massive jungles of Beethoven and Mahler.

There’s the rub.

It takes a lot of time, a lot of refining, a lot of probing and polishing to play chamber music with persuasive elan. Previn and friends, for all their lofty intentions, don’t have much time at their disposal. They must content themselves with superficial rewards for fleeting pleasures.

The E-flat Trio, K. 498, opened the program. Previn played the piano deftly if without much nuance. Michele Zukovsky played the clarinet with properly muted bravura. When the bright and harsh Gindi acoustic allowed him to be heard, Heiichiro Ohyama played the viola gracefully.

The result was an imperfectly balanced performance, correct in execution and bland in definition.

The glorious String Quintet in D, K. 593, followed in a sometimes suave, sometimes strident, dangerously democratic performance that united first-desk players (Ohyama and cellist Daniel Rothmuller) with those of lower formal rank (violinists Michele Bovyer and Maria Larionoff, violist John Hayhurst).

They conveyed the languid poise of the Adagio with compelling ease. Much of the time, however, the expressive profile was fuzzy, the ensemble values uneven.

One couldn’t help wondering who was in charge here, who had selected the players, who had made the interpretive decisions, and how many hours had been devoted to rehearsal. Vexing questions.

Previn returned after intermission for the E-flat Wind Quintet, K. 452. At the keyboard, he provided self-effacing but reasonably propulsive support for the disparate contributions of Robert Cowart (oboe), Zukovsky, Alan Goodman (bassoon) and Carol Drake (horn).

The inherent Mozartean glitter was toned down. So was the pathos. Still, the generalities were well served.

The concert, sold out by subscription, originally was to have enlisted the stellar cello of Yo-Yo Ma. He was replaced, however, without explanation or apology.