MUSIC REVIEW : Cleveland Players Lack Style Despite Fine Form

No trumpets fanfared, no dignitaries bestowed, no flora festooned the stage. A simple plea to buy T-shirts was made, and the 35th season of the Fullerton Friends of Music was underway.

The concert itself, held in the rather hopefully named Performing Arts Center at Sunny Hills High School, turned out to be a low-key affair, too. The Cleveland Duo, a husband-wife team, joined by cellist Bryan Dumm--all three members of the Cleveland Orchestra--stopped by on their way home from the orchestra’s tour of Japan. Perhaps jet lag was a factor.

Like classical musicians who attempt to play jazz, orchestral musicians who attempt chamber music are rarely 100% successful. In both cases, it is almost never a matter of technique that causes the failure, but of style.

So it was on Sunday. Violinist Stephen Warner,, pianist/violinist Carolyn Gadiel Warner and Dumm showed all the capabilities of instrumentalists in a world-class orchestra, including fluid execution, sure intonation and reasonable ensemble, but few of those qualities expected of outstanding chamber musicians. They revealed the musical personalities of persons used to following the lead of others, not of making their own way. They did not project personality or drama or communicate intimately.

Fortunately, they had packed an interesting program. Dumm and Carolyn Warner gave a sensible performance of the rarely encountered Cello Sonata (1913-17) of English composer Frank Bridge, voluptuously lyrical, Impressionistic music in dappled, autumnal colors. The Warners, with Carolyn Warner switching to violin, offered a seldom-heard Sonata for two violins by the French Baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair (his cherishable Opus 3, No. 5) and five selections from Bela Bartok’s colorful 44 Duos for Two Violins in tidy, composed readings.

These works were sandwiched by a remarkably wan run-through of Mozart’s ordinarily vivacious Violin Sonata in B-flat, K. 378, and a solid but by-the-numbers account of the C-major Piano Trio, Opus 87, by Brahms.