MUSIC REVIEW : Piano Quartet Opens Chamber Music Series

Although there are a few organized piano quartets lurking out there, they are a pretty scarce commodity because of the limited repertory. The usual procedure is to operate in an ad hoc way, assembling onetime-only groups of four individuals.

However, UCI Chamber Music, which opened its 1991-92 season Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, chose a middle route--taking three-fourths of an established string quartet and bringing a UC Irvine faculty pianist into the lineup. That should give an ensemble a big head start in matters of unity in blending, conception and temperament.

The pleasing result here was that the quorum from the Angeles String Quartet--violinist Roger Wilkie, violist Brian Dembow and cellist Stephen Erdody--and pianist Nina Scolnik often sounded like a single instrument. It was a solid, suave, generally even-tempered blend, precisely balanced so that no single instrument--not even the piano--dominated the mix.

That would certainly guarantee an evening of comfortable, civilized music making. But it was not an evening of exciting music making, given the aim for mild-mannered unity at all costs and the conservative repertory at hand.

The Schubert String Trio No. 2 in B-flat found the three Angeles members in total agreement as to matters of closely matched, nearly seamless tone, slightly rustic accents in the first movement and smoothed-over rhythm elsewhere. In Mozart’s G-minor Piano Quartet, K. 478, in which Scolnik delivered clear yet softly focused piano work, the foursome placidly surveyed the landscape, rarely digging beneath the lush, level surface.

The Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor could build to some moments of passion and heat toward the close of the first movement, and Erdody’s heartfelt cello solo in the third movement ultimately merged beautifully with Wilkie’s violin. Yet it might have been a more consistently passionate performance had the quartet observed greater dynamic contrasts.