MUSIC REVIEW : Korean Chamber Ensemble in a Workmanlike Outing

Mournful music occupied the first third of the Korean Chamber Ensemble’s performance at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday.

On a sunny, benign afternoon, listeners may have been turned off by the general gloom of works by Anton Arensky and Byung-Dong Paik, and the unnecessary darkness in the hall.

A little showmanship might have saved the day--a look of enthusiasm from the 19 string players, more exuberance from leader-concertmaster Min Kim. As it was, there was no distraction or respite from soberness until the appearance of soloist Young Uck Kim (no relation), who played Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 before intermission.

This was an expert and pleasing performance, mild-mannered rather than joyful, yet constantly musical and technically solid. The United States-trained Kim, now 48, maintains the high standard he first set for himself more than 30 years ago.

The Korean Chamber Ensemble accompanied discreetly. In Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, the string orchestra played dutifully, but found itself swamped, scratchy and scrambling in the more difficult movements.

Paik’s “Youlmok,” in its U.S. premiere, sounds lugubrious throughout its busy, nine-minute, emotional journey. Its grating dissonances and other 20th-Century devices might have been welcome had the opening piece posed more of a contrast. Two reflective and downcast compositions do not profit from being set down, side by side.

At the end of the short matinee, which concluded barely 90 minutes after it began, there was liveliness and energy in Britten’s jolly “Simple Symphony.” The gloom had lifted.

One mystery about the event was solved Monday morning, when a representative of the Cerritos Center revealed that the name of the conductor in the Paik work was not the composer, but another Korean musician, Yong-woo Chun.