MUSIC REVIEW : Carmina Quartet Looks Inward in Recital at Bing

Watching all the swaying and gesticulation on stage in Leo S. Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum on Wednesday night, one could have concluded that the Carmina Quartet was embroiled in perilous risk-taking and intense drama.

After all, the meaty scores at hand presented plenty of opportunity for such involvement. Beethoven’s Opus 95, his Quartet “Serioso,” abounds with threatening might and darkness. Bloch’s late-in-life flirtation with 12-tone technique, his Third Quartet, offers emphatic, monolithic textures. Ravel’s only foray into this genre rejoices in the sensual, tantalizing with lush waves of shifting harmonies.

Nevertheless, appearances were deceiving. The Zurich-based group--violinists Matthias Enderle and Susanne Frank, violist Wendy Champney and cellist Stephan Goerner--chose to explore the contemplative aspects of these works considerably more than their overt and powerful contrasts.

Still, focusing on quiet detail holds many attractions. Tension lurking below the mournful counterpoint of Beethoven’s Allegretto may have been nearly absent, but it dissipated in a prism of soft dynamics, thoughtfully applied to unhurried lines. Bloch’s granitic drive may have lacked strength, but his Adagio convinced with calm introspection, first established by the viola’s somber soliloquy. And although the Carmina Quartet’s look into the impressionist palette of Ravel did not reveal sensuous surging, it did create an abstract study in hushed pastels.