MUSIC REVIEW : Pianists, Bassoonists Featured in Chamber Concert at Gindi

The slight variation from traditional programming that marked the third concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society series on Monday night was more an oddity than a genuine novelty.

The composer was one Arcady Dubensky, a Russian born in 1890 but dwelling in New York for the most part of his life and scarcely known to fame.

But Dubensky had a propensity, if not exactly a great talent, for writing music for unusual combinations of instruments. Thus, the piece that brought him to light on this occasion, in Gindi Auditorium of the University of Judaism, was a Prelude and Fugue for four bassoons, maybe the only known example of its kind.

If it has competitors for the distinction it does not matter much, for the piece adequately served as a present exercise for David Breidenthal, Walter Ritchie, Patricia Kindel and Alan Goodman, an ensemble expert both individually and collectively.

There was more substance but not necessarily more weight to Arensky’s Piano Trio in D minor, Opus 32. The work was composed in 1894 and shows its age as a relic of light-hearted Romanticism. Its main purpose seemed to be to provide a comprehensive exhibition of the talents of the pianist, a chore lightly and zestfully disposed of by Zita Carno. Richard Leshin on violin and Howard Colf on cello successfully supported Carno.

Antonin Dvorak’s Quartet in E-flat, Opus 87, likewise starred a pianist, this time a guest in the person of Armen Guzelimian.

Dvorak, whose star seems at times to decline but never actually sets, challenges the pianist with a part of concerto dimensions. Guzelimian never pushed himself out of the ensemble frame, but within those limits he gave a reading of splendid scope, ornamented with glitter and constantly disposed musically in the firmest ensemble terms.

It was a rousing performance and the participants were repeatedly recalled. String players were Elizabeth Baker, violin, Ralph Fielding, viola and Barry Gold, cello.