Angeles Quartet Goes Distance in ‘HaydnFest’

The complex dynamics that account for the superiority of one human venture over another cannot always be analyzed logically.

Sunday, for example, the Angeles String Quartet, playing a two-part hyper-concert separated by a lunch break, produced measurably more engaging performances in the second part than in the first. This event, a second annual mini-marathon called “Ein kleines HaydnFest II” and given in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, netted strong readings of Haydn’s works in B-flat, Opus 71, No. 1; in F, Opus 17, No. 2; in F, Opus 77, No. 2; in D minor, Opus 9, No. 4; in B-flat, Opus 55, No. 3; and in C minor, Opus 74, No. 3--some more potent than others.

The Angeles’ reputation as an ensemble of equals that nonetheless plays with single-minded concentration was not in question. But the virtuosic players focused on two works more powerfully than on the others; those were the earliest represented Quartet, the one from Opus 9, and the dramatically engrossing B-flat-major of Opus 55.

Perhaps the four members--violinists Kathleen Lenski and Steven Miller, violist Brian Dembow and cellist Stephen Erdody--hold these pieces in higher affection, or perhaps the challenges are greater, and thus more care needs to be expended on their execution. Whatever the reasons, these exquisite readings sparkled. In the emotionally resonant, expansive D-minor Quartet, the instrumentalists delivered contrasts and deep definition.

No apologies were necessary in the rest of the playing, especially when it came to the last complete work in the form that Haydn wrote, Opus 77, No. 2. In the strongest playing of the pre-lunch portion of the event, that work lived up to Miller’s pre-performance endorsement to the attentive crowd: “We’re in love with it.”

This rewarding day began with an outdoor continental breakfast in the center’s employee parking lot, contibnued with Herbert Glass’ informative spoken program notes at 10 a.m. After the first three Haydn works were presented, the audience took 90 minutes for lunch.