A Lively Cuarteto Latinoamericano Program

The ever-welcome Cuarteto Latinoamericano returned to Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Sunday, again bringing an unfamiliar gem from the treasure house of serious Latin American music, and also providing a rare serendipitous moment by juxtaposing works by Stravinsky and Mozart.

The gem was Mario Lavista’s “Reflejos de la Noche” (Reflections of the Night), composed in 1984 and dedicated to the quartet--violinists Saul and Aron Bitran, cellist Alvaro Bitran (who are all brothers) and violist Javier Montiel.

On one hand, this short, one-movement piece is a study in two basic string techniques--sustained harmonics and skittering bowing--both limited to very quiet dynamics. On the other, it is an imaginative creation of an elfin sound world, bristling with energy and kaleidoscopic in delicate color.

Members of the audience went up to examine the score during the intermission to see how it was all notated.

Post-intermission was devoted to two works--Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet and Mozart’s Quartet in D, K. 499. This is an unusual order. It would seem to apply Mozart as a balm after the so-called rigors of the 20th century master. But apparently something far more important was intended.

Stravinsky’s Three Pieces, which quickly established a high level of musical sophistication, ends with Canticle, a solemn chant that abstracts the gestures of mourning without losing the essential core of the emotion.

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The piece, lovingly played by the quartet, trails off in exhausted or transcended grief. Next came Mozart’s radiant, comforting K. 499, a work that seemed to emerge from the same point that the Stravinsky vanished into, fully cognizant of that pain yet spreading consolation. It was goose-bump time. Rarely has Mozart sounded so completely modern.

This was true, even though the quartet offered muscular, almost Romanticized and not entirely stylish Mozart playing. It didn’t much matter.

They opened the program with Heitor Villa-Lobos’ sweet, uncomplicated Quartet No. 1 and Silvestre Revueltas’ bustling, pictorial Quartet No. 4 (“Musica de Feria”).

The quartet played Astor Piazzolla’s “Four for Tango” as an encore.