MUSIC REVIEW : Mt. Washington Ensemble Performs at Museum

The members of Music from Mt. Washington, a chamber group made up of some well-known local musicians, make a point of the fact that they are good friends. Wednesday night in Bing Theater at the County Museum of Art they revealed the musical benefits of that companionship in generous and spirited performances of music by Mozart, Schubert and Michael Haydn.

Formed a decade ago to perform concerts in its members’ homes in Mt. Washington, the group is now a more public entity. Its incarnation Wednesday included violinist Margaret Batjer, violist Milton Thomas, cellist David Speltz, bassist Buell Neidlinger and pianist Doris Stevenson.

The find of the evening, in an otherwise familiar program, was Michael Haydn’s Divertimento in C for violin, cello and bass. In this work the composer combines his instruments with subtlety and imagination while spinning out shapely, singing melodies. Its pretensions are small but its charms are great.

The trio performed it with considerable grace and precision.

In Mozart’s G-minor Piano Quartet the players revealed an occasionally too-lean yet generally sturdy tone and propulsive yet flexible phrasing.

The concert concluded, aptly enough, with music composed for friends, Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. Here Stevenson’s lightness of touch and the mere suggestion of the bass part from Neidlinger lent the music still more buoyant good humor.