MUSIC REVIEW : A Morning of Quintets at the Taper

Croissants, coffee and chamber music at the Mark Taper Forum remains one of the more endearing traditions in Los Angeles, with its unorthodox yet civilized starting time--10:45 a.m.--and free refreshments on the L.A. Music Center plaza.

Sunday morning’s edition at the Taper featured just a pair of cornerstones of the clarinet literature--the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms--and the Pacific Symphony’s principal clarinetist, James Kanter.

In the wrong hands, this could have meant a morning of routine languor. But the skilled ad-hoc quintet on hand (Kanter, violinists Margaret Batjer and Rene Mandel, violist Richard Elegino and cellist David Speltz) proved otherwise.

With Mandel playing first violin, the Mozart work was treated to a warmly affectionate reading, emerging properly into a crisp finale. Kanter tended to blend in reticently with the strings, displaying an occasional, slightly harsh-edged tone in the softest passages. Yet he proved himself technically unflappable, clearly articulating the rapid variations in the finale.

The performance of the Brahms quintet definitely had more heat, much of which was generated by the gutsier, more assertively emotional playing of first violinist Batjer, switching places with Mandel. Particularly moving was the way the quintet projected the aching melancholy of the second movement.

The series’ indefatigable artistic director, Henri Temianka (who will turn 84 on Monday), prefaced each work with his usual lively, humanizing commentary on the composers. He also announced that he would be reducing his activities as an organizer for the series, while remaining available for speaking, conducting or playing.