Music Reviews : Many Aural Awards in Mischa Concert

A feeling of imminent loss mixed with pleasure was this listener’s reaction to the Music for Mischa concert offered within the peaceful, handsome and acoustically inviting confines of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library on Sunday.

This was to be the last of the Mischa series, at least as a locally based entity, with the announcement of the forthcoming departure of its founder, Robert Martin, for a major administrative and teaching post at Bard College in Upstate New York.

Martin will be missed and remembered for his protean contributions to the local scene, as cellist of the lamented Sequoia Quartet, as a teacher (in both the philosophy and music departments) and administrator at UCLA, and not least for producing the stimulating Mischa series, dedicated to the memory of Mischa Schneider, cellist of the Budapest String Quartet.

But, before this begins to sound like a funeral oration, it should be reported that there were aural rewards aplenty in Sunday’s program by the “Mischa Quartet”: violinists Margaret Batjer and Sheryl Staples, violist Michael Nowak and cellist Martin.

First came the multiplicity of marvels that constitutes Haydn’s Quartet in E-flat, Opus 64, No. 6, its presentation resounding with rhythmic alertness throughout and the multiple jokes of the minuet’s inspired double trio zestfully, deftly projected.

The outer movements of Bartok’s Second Quartet were delivered with their pained lyricism intact, as well as with a degree of polish in terms of centered intonation and ensemble balance that might be envied by many of our more experienced, permanently constituted ensembles.

If the ferocious central movement lacked contrast on this occasion--the moments of respite the composer provided were subsumed under the general frenzy--it could still be appreciated purely for the players’ technical aplomb.

The concluding work was an old Sequoia and Music for Mischa specialty, Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet, vigorously, joyously, grandly stated.