MUSIC REVIEW : Angeles Quartet Takes True-Blue Approach in Irvine

At a time when most concert series have just opened, the Angeles Quartet closed its five-concert series for the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s “Mozart Celebration 1991” Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

The reason? Rather than conform to the normal fall-to-spring routine, the Philharmonic chose to straddle two seasons, running its series from January straight through the summer into December, concluding with several performances next month by the Salzburg Marionettes.

They have a point: In a region with an unchanging year-round climate, it shouldn’t make much difference how a series spans the calendar.

Beyond that, there wasn’t much that was unusual or amiss about the Angeles program. In true-blue Juilliard Quartet fashion, they opened with a classical warm-up, wrestled with the 20th Century before intermission and closed with a major masterwork.

The Angeles foursome--consisting of Kathleen Lenski and Roger Wilkie, violins; Brian Dembow, viola, and Stephen Erdody, cello--tossed off a warm yet vigorous performance of Haydn’s Quartet in B-flat, Opus 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”), though the playing turned a bit scrappy at the acceleration in the Finale.

In Bartok’s downcast Quartet No. 6--where the beleaguered composer toned down some but not all of the abrasive energy of the middle quartets--the Angeles generally steered clear from whatever edge the music has.

Almost everything seemed to have a dark, suave sheen in an effort to make late Bartok sound as beautiful as possible. However, the players did manage to dig into the grotesqueries of the third movement with welcome ferocity.

Heiichiro Ohyama--until recently a familiar face at the Los Angeles Philharmonic--turned up as the outboard violist in Mozart’s Quintet in G minor, K. 516.

Oddly, the quartet’s balance--which had leaned heavily in favor of the lower strings earlier--didn’t change much with the added voice.

Yet, with Ohyama totally integrated into the blend, the Angeles-plus-one turned in the most heartfelt, most polished and most searching performance of the evening, catching and projecting the melancholy strain of the odd-numbered movements particularly well.

The Angeles Quartet will play Beethoven’s String Quartet in D, Opus 18, No. 3, Chihara’s “Sequoia” Quartet, and, with clarinetist Michelle Zukovsky, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581 on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the performing arts auditorium at Sunny Hills High School, 1801 Warburton Way, Fullerton. Sponsored by Fullerton Friends of Music. Admission: free. Information: (714) 525-9504.