Music Reviews : Philharmonic Institute in Chamber Program

Part of the public offerings of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute this summer is a series of five free chamber music concerts. Institute artistic director Lynn Harrell has given his charges attractive programs, and if the playing Thursday evening at Gindi Auditorium was representative, they deliver them handsomely.

The program began with an emphasis on soloists. Though large chunks of the solo part in Lou Harrison’s classically shaped 1959 Concerto for Violin and Percussion sound like outtakes from Kreutzer etudes, as supported and inflected by the wonderfully various percussion battery it conveys both sense and sensibility.

Violinist Mari Lunde projected firm assurance and technique, and respect for the poetic possibilities of her taxing part. Stefan Sanderling conducted percussionists Scott Jackson, Gabriel Dionne, Riely Francis, Kathy Dayak and John Riccobono in a neatly balanced, surprisingly sensuous accompaniment.

All the subtle glories of Debussy’s “Danse sacree et danse profane” emerged under the fluent ministrations of harpist Marcia Dickstein. She played with musical point and technical precision, ably aided and abetted by violinists Jennifer Carsillo and Mary DiIulio, violist Kristen Linfante, cellist Carol Bullock and bassist Kirby White.

After intermission came Brahms’ Sextet in B-flat, in a youthfully serious reading. Violinists Gabriel Gordon and Darryl Kubian, violists Karin Addis and Kelli Fitzgerald, and cellists David Mollenauer and Susan Moyer had their share of intonation problems, but also communicated much solemn joy and concentrated energy.