Music and Dance Reviews : Troubled Chamber Music/LA Forges On

In the realm of concert life, chamber music sometimes tends to be an endangered species, an intimate pleasure worth savoring and supporting. That point was well-represented on Sunday afternoon at the Japan America Theater, where Chamber Music/LA put on its only concert of the season--and that a benefit for itself.

Claiming natural and fiscal calamities as the causes for this hiatus, the organization hopes to garner resources for a full season next year, just in time to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Let’s hope so: Rome may burn and shake, and the recession may smolder, but chamber music must prevail.

In a romantic-leaning program, the best came first. Mozart’s Viola Quintet in E-flat, K. 614, was resplendent, with a cogent collective voice from violinists Christiaan Bor and Paul Rosenthal, violists Milton Thomas and Marcus Thompson and cellist Nathaniel Rosen.

Moving from classical poise to the purpler hue of romantic passion, Franck’s Sonata in A proved a choice foil for pianist Mari Kodama and violinist Yukiko Kamei. Kamei, also Chamber Music/LA’s artistic director, boasted a sumptuous tone and assured technique.

In the second half, Kodama deftly rose to the occasion of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A, Opus 81, for which the composer appropriated folk material. It’s a work of mercurial temperament, now joyful, now rueful, with emotional content presented up close and personal.

Throughout the performance, the musicians on hand worked well, individually and in concert. All was well in the chamber.