MUSIC REVIEW : An Elegant Set From Angarola Group

In its U.S. debut, Tuesday night in the Recital Hall at Cal State Fullerton, the Angarola Guitar Quartet did not stir interest through bravado and daring. Instead it impressed with quiet refinement and precision.

The program appeared calculated to draw on these strengths. Minimalist Paul Dresher’s Guitar Quartet begins with staggered entrances that introduce its quietly persistent figures. For a while the four musicians--founder Anisa Angarola, Klaus Jackle, Jorg Krause and Krzysztof Borkowski (in his first performance with the group)--created hypnotic waves, shored up by accomplished, detail-oriented playing. Ultimately, however, they could not sustain the mesmerization and the piece drowned in its own sameness.

The second minimalist work, “Urban Toys” by faculty composer Lloyd Rodgers, drew more aggressive attacks from the ensemble as it pushed to a driving, monolithic, rhythmic climax, but still benefited from minute attention to nuance, particularly during its atmospheric ending, as motives became more fragmented, silence more frequent and control of the quieter gradations of dynamics more crucial.

Jaime Zenamon’s “Contrastes” emerged amiably and with unflagging momentum: the first movement a simple song, with Jackle as soloist, accompanied by his three companions; the second, a delicate potpourri of shifting rhythms.

The performers devoted the remainder of the evening to arrangements. A set of dances by Michael Praetorius, as adapted by the quartet, and UCLA faculty composer Ian Krouse’s interpretation of “Carman’s Whistle,” by William Byrd, were infused with transparent voicing and tasteful dynamic shading.

Telemann’s Concerto for Four Violins in C, another transcription by the Angarola Quartet, missed some of the insistence and yearning that the original bowed instruments might command, but shone in intricate, accurate and fleet-fingered passages.

Pepe Romero’s version of “El Baile de Luis Alonso,” from Jeronimo Gimenez’s zarzuela, offered a chance for risk-taking showmanship, to which its protagonists responded with elegant flair.

Two encores closed the concert, Angarola’s adaptation of Byrd’s “Irish” March, and a reprise of “El Baile,” both receiving spirited, stylish readings.