House Blend Strong and Fresh at the Getty

Los Angeles has a long and distinguished tradition of house music, of busy local musicians getting together to play chamber music in intimate settings for the sheer joy of doing so. The most famous example of this was in the 1950s when four studio musicians formed the Hollywood String Quartet; its old recordings newly minted on CD recall that magical glow of performances in which every bar of Beethoven is precious.

Now we have the House Blend, a collection of four well-known young Angelenos who seem determined not to let the rigors of the life of a professional musician diminish their love for performing. Making its debut Friday night in the 450-seat Harold M. Williams Auditorium of the Getty Center, House Blend (the name was Peter Sellars’ idea; he got it from a coffee-house T-shirt) seemed as fresh as just-ground coffee beans.

The players are Gloria Cheng-Cochran, L.A.’s ubiquitous new-music pianist; Grant Gershon, the former assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a favorite piano accompanist for many notable singers; Elizabeth Baker, a violinist in the Philharmonic; and Elissa Johnston, an exciting soprano on the verge of something big.

That makes for the slightly awkward grouping--two pianos, violin and soprano. But with a little imagination and some flexibility, there are many possibilities for such a group.

The program was personal. Most of the music was either new or recent, much of it local. And that was particularly underscored by the premiere of a 17-minute, two-piano piece, “Hallelujah Junction,” by John Adams. The score is L.A. music by a Bay Area composer; it is named for a truck stop in the Sierras, but it is dedicated to former L.A. Philharmonic managing director Ernest Fleischmann and was written to help launch House Blend. Both pianists, Cheng-Cochran and Gershon, have been longtime champions of Adams.

“Hallelujah Junction” does not break new ground for Adams, but it does not need to. It follows in the motoric style of his earlier piano pieces but is more mature. The sound is thick and lush; the harmonies are succulent, and melodies seems to float out of them, as if lifted by clouds. More an occasional piece than something weighty or moody, it comes across as friendly, contented music. But that sense may also have been the result of the pianists, who make the difficult sound natural.

The rest of the program was, like an informal musicale, made of many small pieces. A discovery was Messiaen’s “La Mort du Nombre” (“The Death of Numbers”), an early example of the French composer’s unique blend of the erotic and religious ecstasy, here utilizing soprano, tenor, violin and piano. Gershon was the tenor; he is that, too, and a surprisingly fine one, with a lyric voice and sure sense of how to bring across text. Johnston soared.

Accompanied by Gershon in recent songs by Aaron Kernis and the local composer Donald Crockett, Johnston (who is married to the pianist) brought a dazzling immediacy to excellent examples of the lively resurgence in American art song. Baker, a feisty violinist, was joined by Gershon for James MacMillan’s brief but sexy violin and piano duo, “After the Tryst,” and by Cheng-Cochran for excerpts from Donald R. Davis’ less imaginative “Afterimages.” The program began with Balinese ceremonial music, stunningly transcribed for two pianos by Colin McPheeCQ in 1940 and sounding as much of today as brand-new Adams.

There are no plans for further programs by House Blend, but smart presenters will surely get wind of the ensemble. The new Getty’s theater is just right for it. The programs are free, but access is complicated by the center’s reservation process.