MUSIC REVIEW : Monday Evening Concerts Completes 51st Season

In the worlds of art or commerce, philanthropy or industry, networking can make things happen. In the neighborhood of new music, networking too often lays eggs.

For example: Closing out his 19th season as artistic director of Monday Evening Concerts, Dorrance Stalvey arranged a predictable and unfascinating program of pieces by himself, Joel Thome, Karel Husa and Brian Ferneyhough. These are respectable composers all, toilers in the field whose works have graced this series, now ending its 51st season, regularly.

The four pieces heard at Leo Bing Theater at the County Museum of Art on Monday night, however, did not go beyond respectability.

Ten years and three months after the premiere, in this room, of his “Savitri: Traveler of the Worlds,” Thome brought the world premiere of a companion piece, “The Book of Beginnings: Adoration of the Earthly Real,” for synthesizer, percussion, electric bass and an ensemble of 13 players.

It too, seems to be inspired by the music and thought of India. It too, goes on and on, though, at half an hour in length, for a considerably shorter time than the 47 minutes that “Savitri” occupied. And it, too, deals in aimlessness, randomness, apparent improvisations, arhythmicity. At the end, there is a huge, loud and pushy F-major chord emanating from the synthesizer. Big deal.

Like the February, 1980, event, this one also offered music by Stalvey (“Agathlon”) and Brian Ferneyhough (“Cassandra’s Dream Song”), the latter piece also heard 10 years ago.

“Agathlon” may justify its existence when it accompanies Erick Hawkins’ dance company, for which it was written, 12 years ago. In the concert hall, it seems to go nowhere, slowly. With nothing to watch, and an unindicated scenario, this octet for mixed instruments merely moves unconvincingly toward its conclusion.

Dorothy Stone was the game and virtuosic solo flutist in Ferneyhough’s colorful “Cassandra’s Dream Song,” which seemed briefer, this time around.

The evening began with an apparently under-rehearsed run-through of Husa’s “Landscapes” (1977), a clever but ultimately undistinctive piece for brass quintet, played by Los Angeles Brass.