Dark, Moody Offerings From Jane’s Minstrels

Post-serial, mainstream modernist settings of texts ranging from ancient Maya to Ezra Pound may not be everybody’s idea of minstrelsy, but Jane’s Minstrels were certainly convincing in the latest Monday Evening Concert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. No ballads here, but a profusion of dark, moody songs from California composers delivered with practiced flair by British soprano Jane Manning and a mixed instrumental sextet conducted by Roger Montgomery.

The biggest piece--in external dimensions, at least--was William Kraft’s “Settings From ‘Pierrot Lunaire,’ ” which originated in a project from the late, lamented Schoenberg Institute commissioning settings of poems from Albert Giraud’s cycle other than those set by Schoenberg. Inspired as Kraft’s text-setting is and expressive as Manning was, on this occasion the instrumental interludes carried the greatest impact, hauntingly sensuous in color and texture.

That followed a pattern--much of Manning’s music was declamatory in spirit and style, with her skilled instrumentalists providing context and direction. Dorrance Stalvey’s “Pound Songs” gave Manning her most sustained lyric opportunities, as well as emotionally resonant and highly descriptive work for the ensemble. Jeremy Haladyna’s “Jaguar Poems” proved exotic only in the Mayan texts, the imagery abstracted in very controlled settings.

Between the song groups came two substantial instrumental numbers from United Kingdom composers (the concert was also listed as a far-flung, final event in the UC Santa Barbara New Music Festival, devoted this year to British music).

Violinist Fenella Barton and pianist Dominic Saunders gave the U.S. premiere of Anthony Payne’s quicksilver “Footfalls Echo in Memory” with urgency and grace. Clarinetist Dov Goldberg displayed impressive range and sound in the musically under-motivated noodling of Judith Weir’s “Sketches From a Bagpiper’s Album,” also partnered by Saunders.