Music Review : An Ear-Opening ‘Concierto’ at LACMA

One of the older, thriving traditions in our musical community is the series of admission-free chamber concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

This series is, of course, much older than LACMA, which opened in 1965. It goes back decades, to beginnings at the Museum of Natural History in Exposition Park, when the concerts were broadcast live on the still-lamented KFAC.

In 1994, the Sunday afternoon events are given in Bing Theater at LACMA. They usually last one hour and are sent through the ether via KUSC-FM. They now include performances by touring artists from both the United States and abroad. And, half a century later, they are still worth hearing.

More than worthwhile--ear-opening, actually--was the unusual, double program titled “Concierto Latinoamericano,” given Sunday afternoon.

With music by Villa-Lobos, Enrique Gonzalez Medina, Roger Boutry, Gernot Wolfgang, A. Jo Duell-Gonzalez, Miguel del Aguila and Sergio Ramirez Cardenas, this agenda may have exceeded its category, but not its fascination. Six of the seven works presented--there were four premiere performances--were played by the trio of flutist Diane Alancraig, bassoonist Judith Farmer and pianist Miguel del Aguila.

As it turned out, Aguila became the hero of the afternoon, and not just for his many and comprehensive keyboard skills. His new piece for bassoon and piano, “Sunsetsong,” revealed a poetic and dramatic bent, showed off both instruments to best advantage and gave Farmer and himself many opportunities for virtuoso display. Most important, the quarter-hour work engages the listener constantly.

Gonzalez Medina’s four-part “Ritmicas,” for flute and piano, also in its world premiere, held the ear through a series of mood swings often contradicting its own title; nevertheless, idiomatic instrumental writing and long, lyrical lines sustained one’s interest. Ramirez Cardenas’ “Three Fast Breakfasts,” proved an homage, a very facile one, to Poulenc.

Guest pianist Susan High was the soloist in Duell-Gonzalez’s Messiaenic “The Holy Trinity,” a nine-minute series of meditations accompanied by paintings projected onto a screen next to the piano. Neither the Yamaha grand piano nor Jeff Kowatch’s splashy paintings seemed to connect closely with the three slow-motion movements.

As they had in Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 6, Alancraig and Farmer excelled in the aerobic displays of Wolfgang’s breezy Duo (1992). The piece may indeed be, as the composer claims, stylistically “between jazz and funk,” but to one listener it seemed, with all its charms, highly legit. Classical, even.