Music Reviews : Brahms Sextets by Chamber Virtuosi

Although he announced last November that he is cutting back his organizing activities, Henri Temianka apparently has no intention of disappearing altogether into the woodwork. There he was in his usual entertaining role as verbal program annotator at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theatre Sunday afternoon, wryly reading some ancient wrongheaded critiques of Brahms.

Well, poor old baited Brahms certainly doesn’t need our sympathy, given the glut of his music that is regularly served up everywhere these days. Still, it was unusual to hear not one, but both of his string sextets on one program, as performed by an ad-hoc ensemble under the California Chamber Virtuosi label.

In general, the Opus 36 Sextet clearly received a more persuasive performance than Opus 18. In the latter, the group emphasized massively lush textures over forward movement, and one could hear a few frazzled edges in the execution.

But the players hit their stride after intermission in Opus 36, giving us both voluptuousness and drive, solidly in tune this time with no frayed strands. In particular, one enjoyed the energizing way that they launched into the trio of the second movement and the variations of the third, unlike their tentative treatment of the Opus 18 scherzo.

The sextet consisted of Stuart Canin and Rene Mandel on violins, Donald McInnes and Jonathan Craig on violas, and William de Rosa and Christina Cooper on cellos. Of these players, De Rosa was the outstanding solo voice, shining in each exposed passage with considerable warmth and technical security.