MUSIC REVIEW : LAGUNA CHAMBER GROUP OPENS SEASON FESTIVELY

Celebrating concurrent 28th anniversary seasons, both the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society and the Westwood Wind Quintet got together Monday night at the society’s usual stomping ground, the auditorium at Laguna Beach High School. Not unexpectedly, the air was festive.

The two organizations can take pride in their respective achievements over these three decades. For the society members, their pioneering has contributed to the maturing musical life of the area, though no one would be so disingenuous as to pretend there was no music in Orange County before 1959.

For the quintet, an accumulation of instrumental polish and important repertory over a long period has resulted in a treasurable sense of ensemble and musical solidity, qualities reflected Monday in strong performances of music by Klughardt, Barber, Berio, Dahl and Nielsen.

Strongest were the latest works: Barber’s gritty but humane “Summer Music” (1956), Berio’s multifaceted “Children’s Play” (1952) and Dahl’s neo-modern Allegro and Arioso (1942). Each was performed with authority, elasticity, a clarified lyricism and articulate timing.

In the Berio suite, the five players--flutist John Barcellona, clarinetist David Atkins, hornist Joseph Meyer, bassoonist David Muller and oboist Peter Christ--recited the poems effectively but without archness.

Maintaining a balance between directness and coloration is only one challenge posed by this deceptively lighthearted but very serious work. The performers must keep the exterior smiling while delivering intact the substantial subtext--one dealing with violence, brutality, loss of innocence and alienation, among other heavy matters.

At the close of the program, Nielsen’s graceful wind writing also emerged well-spoken, with all its mechanical problems solved neatly. At the beginning of the evening, however, things did not go smoothly in the opening movement of August Klughardt’s tedious Quintet in C and proceeded only indifferently after that.