MUSIC REVIEW : Cuarteto Latinoamericano Opens Monday Eve Concerts

There is an element of sorrow under the joy of discovery in a program like that offered Monday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There the Cuarteto Latinoamericano opened the Monday Evening Concerts series with a tight survey of 20th-Century Mexican string quartets, complementing the “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries” exhibit.

The sorrow comes from the suspicion that when the current celebrations of Mexican culture end, such music will disappear from our programs, and the realization that this represents just the tip of an almost entirely unknown repertory. The Cuarteto Latinoamericano has been here before, and will be back later this season, but the pervasive conservative parochialism among string quartets seems resistant to the most persuasive of missionary efforts.

In residence at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the ensemble consists of three brothers--violinists Saul and Aron Bitran, cellist Alvaro Bitran--plus violist Javier Montiel. Now in its 10th year, Cuarteto Latinoamericano delivered an appealing and cogent account of three relatively recent works and two pieces from the founding fathers of contemporary Mexican music.

Tying the program together was an emphasis on color and timbre over linear motivic argument. Mario Lavista’s stunningly cold and pretty “Reflejos de la Noche” proved the epitome of that in fluttering harmonics and ponticello rasps.

The fifth String Quartet of Manuel Enriquez, “Xopan Cuicatl” (Spring Songs), employs a variety of extended techniques, though none of them outre by contemporary standards. The effects are pertinently contrasted with more traditional references, to both European and Mexican sources. Though more than a little disjunct, the resulting collage gathers together the cross-cultural implications and sustains interest readily.

Rodolfo Halffter’s Ocho Tientos also have qualities of a collage, being a carefully constructed suite of eight short etude-like experiments in rhythmic and tonal diversity. Halffter’s miniatures have their gritty moments, but convey a basically buoyant sense of musical fantasy.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano played these pieces with great conviction and authority. The group produced a flexible ensemble sound, providing a suave context for both integration and solo flights.

The proceedings did not begin quite so assuredly, with intonation problems and spongy sound rife in the String Quartet No. 1 of Carlos Chavez. This is not one of the composer’s more distinguished works, and it was probably not fortuitous coincidence that the players’ effort jelled most convincingly in the strongest movement, the austere, deftly scored Adagio.

Silvestre Revueltas’ String Quartet No. 4, “Music de Feria,” was as close as this program came to a standard. Some residual technical troubles ruffled the opening passages, but Cuarteto Latinoamericano found itself in the reflective middle portions, and drove vigorously to the explosive conclusion.