Music Reviews : Talich String Quartet Falters at Mansion

Perhaps it was the desiccating Santa Ana winds, perhaps the rigors of touring. Whatever the causes, the program delivered in the Doheny Mansion on Friday by the Talich String Quartet of Prague was not up to the ensemble’s lofty standards.

Opening a concert with the exposed textures of Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2, is risky under the best of circumstances. On this occasion, given the intonation problems encountered by first violinist Petr Messiereur and similar, if less obtrusive, lapses by second violinist Jan Kvapil, the score’s sly elegance proved elusive.

The Second Quartet (“Intimate Letters”) of Janacek, a signature piece for the group, likewise failed to make its wonted effect.

The Talich delivers this music with a good deal less ferocity than most of their Czech colleagues. Theirs is an approach that tempers Janacek’s incendiary intensity with the pained lyricism underlying all that fervor and busyness.

On Friday, a veteran Talich observer could appreciate the ensemble’s aims, while lamenting the technical lapses that obviated their coherent projection.

The best violin playing of the evening came at the end, in Dvorak’s grandly melodious and vital Quartet in G, Opus 106. But ultimately it was the lushly blooming tones of violist Jan Talich and the rugged solidity of Evzen Rattay’s cello that really brought the Bohemian soundscape to life.