Music Review : An Eloquent Ysaye Quartet in Long Beach

The Ysaye Quartet explored subtleties of content, structure and shading during its program Monday night at Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall on the campus of Cal State Long Beach.

Together, violinists Christophe Giovaninetti and Lu-Marie Aguera, violist Miguel Da Silva and cellist Michel Poulet embraced the sensual intimacies of Ravel’s F-major Quartet with quiet unanimity and great mastery. They offered tender nuance while attending to sustained washes of color. They played with uninterrupted fluidity, but took time to imbue each note with meaning. As a result, the work glistened with mystery and yearning.

Mozart’s String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421--one of the six that the younger composer dedicated to Haydn--benefited from the French group’s warm, inviting tone and round-edged phrases. The four musicians presented the piece as sympathetic, sensitive conversationalists, eloquent and considerate throughout.

The Piano Quintet in F Minor by Franck, for which pianist Ayke Agus joined the quartet, received similar attention to detail. The five virtuosos found many affecting moments. Yet for all their searching soulfulness, they often left the larger architecture of this piece obscured, so that it appeared more nervous and sprawling than tortured and powerful.

Agus and the quartet had played the Franck quintet on a program with Mozart’s Quartet in D, K. 499, and Schulhoff’s Quartet No. 2 on Sunday at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.

* The Ysaye Quartet, with Ayke Agus, repeats this program tonight at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre , 4401 E. 8th St., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. $18-$22. (213) 939-1128.

Chris Pasles’ music and dance column will resume next week.