Bylsma, Bilson Don’t Quite Hit the Mark

Two luminaries of the period-performance world, cellist Anner Bylsma and pianist Malcolm Bilson, appeared before a large, appreciative audience in the Bing Theater of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wednesday. One had to feel, however, that the listeners’ enthusiasm had more to do with recognition of the artists’ past achievements than with the concert at hand.

The two very grand, virtuosic duo-sonatas of Beethoven’s Opus 5 served as bookends. The Sonata in F, which launched the program, was beset by imbalances, the cello swamped by the rich-toned piano, a superb modern reproduction of one of Mozart’s own instruments. Clearly audible, alas, was a more than tolerable number of digital and intonational mishaps.

Things hardly improved with Bylsma’s unusually wan--he is normally the most dynamic of players--interpretation of the unaccompanied Suite in D minor, a dour effort by J.S. Bach requiring all the enlivening effort a player can deliver.

The most settled playing of the evening came after intermission, with Bilson conveying, accurately and stylishly, the slender charms of Mozart’s solo Sonata in G, K. 283, before a return to Beethoven and his Sonata in G minor.

Bylsma seemed here to regain his technical composure, and balances were exemplary. Still, the tone clusters produced by Bilson in the rondo finale were hardly intended by the composer. One had, ultimately, to admire the intentions of the performance rather than its accomplishment.