Music and Dance Reviews : Bronfman Joins Quartet in Shostakovich Work

What makes a musical performance definitive? A combination of things really, but high among them is the enthusiasm of the performers, their ability to make the listener feel as if they are hearing, no matter what the work, one of the greatest pieces ever composed.

That was the type of persuasion at work when pianist Yefim Bronfman joined four members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic--in a Philharmonic Chamber Music Society concert at Gindi Auditorium Monday night--for a performance of the Piano Quintet in G minor by Shostakovich.

Bronfman set the no-nonsense tone by aggressively launching into the prelude before the audience had settled, even before the string players had adjusted their music stands. He played aggressively throughout, in fact, but without harshness, bringing to bear a hefty, well-rounded tone and breadth of phrase.

The string quartet--violinists Alexander Treger and Mark Kashper, violist Evan Wilson and cellist Daniel Rothmuller--matched him in muscle. The performance had massiveness of texture and untiring gusto.

The potentially withdrawn fugue became drama of epic extent, the intermezzo reached passionate heights. The witty scherzo turned into a rip-roaring farce. But all was not a matter of athletic expressiveness as the ensemble took on a salon elegance, a charming sheen for the enigmatic finale.

As an encore, they bolted intensely through the scherzo from Brahms’ Piano Quintet.

On the first half of the program, Boyde Hood added an element of authenticity to his fluid, moody account of Hindemith’s Trumpet Sonata--with pianist Zita Carno in sturdy support--by using a dark-timbred, rotary-valve trumpet favored by Germans.

The uncharacteristic Serenade, Opus 8, by Beethoven filled out the program, in a solid, cheerful reading by violinist Yun Tang, violist Meredith Snow and cellist Gloria Lum that nevertheless seemed a trifle too well-mannered for the music’s good.