MUSIC REVIEWS : Clarinetist Plays Mozart in ‘Mischa’ Series

The midpoint in this fourth season of “Music for Mischa” chamber concerts at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, was a Mozart/ Beethoven/Brahms program that concluded with the beloved and enigmatic Clarinet Quintet, Opus 115.

Not surprisingly, given the series’ earned reputation and changeable-but-stable roster of players, the level of performances--of a Mozart fragment recently completed and of Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat, Opus 74, as well as the Brahms work--achieved a high plateau, Sunday afternoon in Westwood. All the playing emerged fluent, serious, faceted and stylish.

Without any undue aggressiveness, clarinetist Gary Gray apparently inspired his fellow instrumentalists--violinists Margaret Batjer and Sheryl Staples, violist Michael Nowak and cellist Robert Martin--benignly.

The familiar work moved through its emotionally expansive movements with an accumulation of deep feeling, supported by abundant detailing and a sense of continuity. The result rang true.

Gray stole no attention from his colleagues; rather, all five players, clearly of a single mind about this piece, let the performance grow through close attention to an inner musical scenario. Still, the clarinetist, whose sound commands authority without stridency and whose playing offers finesse without preciosity, shaped a taut reading that moved logically from start to finish.

Before that, the four string players--a wonderful quartet that deserves its own name--gave a resourceful, vivid and clarified performance of Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet.

At the beginning of the program, there was a novelty, Robert Levin’s completion of a movement-fragment by Mozart for a quintet of clarinet and strings, K. anh. 91/516c. It is a tuneful, engaging, altogether pleasant, if rather four-square, piece, eight minutes in length. The Mischa gang performed it affectionately.

The series’ third and final event, April 25, will feature pianist Mona Golabek as guest artist.