Music Reviews : Mendelssohn Quartet at Wilshire Ebell

Appearing on Wednesday before a packed Music Guild house at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, the New York-based Mendelssohn String Quartet displayed a marked affinity for music of the Classical era.

Played with exceptionally light, bright sonority--controlled, tight ensemble vibrato being of particular value toward achieving this end--and bounding rhythmicality, the A-major Quartet from Beethoven’s Opus 18 proved an invigorating program-opener.

In spite of being one of Shostakovich’s more attenuated and predictable exercises (now that his chamber canon is becoming familiar), the Ninth Quartet also proved well-suited to the artists’ nimble, lightweight ensemble.

When faced with the more lush and expansive musical style of Dvorak’s Quartet in A-flat, Opus 105, the Mendelssohns found themselves in deep trouble. One sensed here a decided lack of ensemble weight, with first violinist Ida Levin straining to push her slender tone to soaring prominence and achieving instead brittleness, stridency and questionable intonation. Here, too, Katherine Murdock’s soft-grained viola failed to convey Dvorak’s points, in terms of sound and momentum.

Thus, great lyric and dramatic gaps were left to be filled by second violinist Nicholas Mann and cellist Marcy Rosen who, while projecting their parts expertly, were simply not intended by the composer to carry that great a burden.