Music Reviews : Philharmonic Group at Gindi

On Monday at Gindi Auditorium, the Los Angeles Philharmonic offered another display of the depth of its ranks with a chamber music program that did not rely on the services of orchestra principals.

Hardly for the first time during the past two seasons, attention focused on clarinetist David Howard, a commanding protagonist, bringing extraordinary coloristic and dynamic variety to Bartok’s fiercely folksy “Contrasts.”

As in Milhaud’s 1936 Suite, which preceded and which might be called cutesy-folksy (in its frothy, frisky, Frenchy way), Howard’s accomplished partners were violinist Camille Avellano and guest pianist Gloria Cheng.

There were some balance problems in the Bartok: The Gindi acoustic tends both to muddy and exaggerate the piano’s bass, which caused occasional swamping of the violin. But the interpretation carried such conviction and interpretive unanimity that the distraction proved fleeting.

The Slavonic moodiness of Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio was in the capable hands of Trio West, comprising two Philharmonic members, assistant concertmaster Mark Baranov and cellist Barry Gold, and Lina Targonsky, one of several powerhouse chamber pianists with whom the Southland is blessed.

For a listener who has been “Dumky”-ed a few times too often, the performance proved most interesting for such perhaps esoteric felicities as the matched portamentos of violinist and cellist--passages played by one instrument and intended to be mirrored by the other were done in precisely the same style--and for the pianist’s alternations of a percussive touch, to penetrate the more thickly textured of the string duos, and a let-the-tones roll approach when the composer gave the piano center stage. Smart, satisfying playing.

Now, for a change, how about letting us hear Dvorak’s other , equally deserving mature Piano Trio, the work in F-minor?