Kuerti Joins Daniel Quartet at Barclay

In its second concert in two days, the Daniel String Quartet substituted Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A for Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Quartet on the previous night’s program. Pianist Anton Kuerti and the quartet collaborated Monday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, with pregnant and compelling results.

In other hands, Dvorak’s quintet might offer glimmers of bucolic life amid its whirlwind passages and luxurious harmonies. These players disclosed no such glints.

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Instead, the quartet--violinists Joan Berkhemer and Misha Furman, violist Itamar Shimon and cellist Zvi Maschkovski--contributed its clarity and drive as balance to Kuerti’s overt, multihued romanticism.

Together, they revealed a dark tour de force, taking daring tempos as they delved into the work with probing unity and sensually drawn detail.

Kuerti has been absent from local concert life since 1987. His appearance with this masterful group, jointly sponsored by the Laguna Chamber Music Society and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, was a reminder of what we have been missing.