Music Reviews : Cleveland Octet Opens Sites Series

Last week the mighty Cleveland Orchestra blew through the Southland on tour. Trailing in its wake was the Cleveland Octet, which opened the Chamber Music in Historic Sites Nakamichi Concerts, Sunday at the Beverly Hills Public Library.

The ensemble--all members of the Cleveland Orchestra--offered just two pieces, but it was an overly generous program at that. Abundant historical and musical connections make Beethoven’s Septet and Schubert’s Octet seem a natural, though perforce marathon, combination. But the pairing proved just too much of the same thing, at least on this occasion.

One suspects that these works were a lot more fun back when they were just entertainment, before being enshrined in the textbook canon. Certainly the Clevelanders gave little indication that humor of any kind played a role in these peaks of the serenade tradition.

Instead, the group seized every opportunity for soulful sighing and deep thinking. They defined the complex and expansive structures at hand with almost pedantic clarity, and projected a unified sense of style.

They also offered often handsome textures and an imposing range of ensemble sound. The main lobby of the year-old library--a cheerful and relaxing post-modern take on Spanish colonial motifs--made an acoustically comfortable listening room, despite a persistent hum, apparently from a light fixture.

For all its many virtues, what the octet did not deliver was any compelling reason to sit through both pieces, which they treated as the work of the same composer. This is presumably the repertory for which the group was founded--it recorded the Schubert 5 years ago--but well-drilled routine accomplished all it could in the first hour.

Founder and first violinist Erich Eichhorn introduced a disconcerting sweet-and-sour element with his intermittent intonation problems. His partner in most of the melodic leadership, clarinetist Theodore Johnson, also had trouble with pitch and an often overly steely sound.

The rest of the group--violinist Mark Dumm, violist Patrick Connelly, cellist Bryan Dumm, bassist Scott Haigh, bassoonist Ronald Phillips and hornist Alan DiMattia--supported them with fluent, balanced ensemble.

The best moments came with the most characterful playing, in the variation and dance-based movements in both works. There we even heard sly indications from some of the inner players, in rhythmic and accentual points, that the wit and whimsy of the music was not entirely unappreciated.