MUSIC REVIEW : American String Quartet at the Irvine Barclay

Works by Mozart, Hindemith and Brahms provoked listeners and performers alike during the American String Quartet’s program Thursday night.

Part of the challenge in this concert--the fourth in the UCI Chamber Music series at the Irvine Barclay Theatre--came from a juxtaposition of fugal movements representing nearly a three-century span: the fugal competition used to offset jaunty interludes in Mozart’s Quartet in G, K. 387; the aching insistence in Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor; the unforgiving opening of Hindemith’s Quartet No. 3.

The musicians--violinists Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violist Daniel Avshalomov and cellist David Geber, joined by UCI faculty-pianist Nina Scolnik for the quintet--responded most boldly to 19th- and 20th-Century stimuli. Lower strings reveled in dark Brahmsian lushness. And, although imbalances plagued the andante, causing Scolnik and Avshalomov to struggle vainly for predominance, the scherzo emerged with compelling urgency, the finale with relentless energy.

Hindemith’s brutal composition elicited an infectious nervous drive, marked by massive crescendos and aggressive attacks effectively augmented through contrast to the elegant classicism that had preceded. An earthy, edge-of-the-seat tone quality resonated jarringly in the acoustically friendly hall. Solos by Carney created an atmosphere of uneasy melancholy; by Geber, of forbidding command.

Mozart’s quartet--the first of six dedicated to Joseph Haydn--received less even treatment than later works. Dynamic variety in the minuet ranged from loud to louder. De-emphasizing the humor of the finale ignored an obvious nod to the composer’s mentor. Still, ensemble members continued one another’s lines with sensitive articulation during the andante, especially following a movingly somber passage by Geber. Winograd led the same movement with tender attention to detail.