‘Southwest at the Huntington’ Concert Is Precious to a Fault

For Friday’s concert in the “Southwest at the Huntington” series, the setting was almost too charmed for words, with a makeshift stage sandwiched between the Huntington Library gallery that houses Gainsborough’s legendary painting, “Blue Boy,” and a full, moonlit sky. Likewise, the concert’s three musicians, linked to the Southwest Chamber Music group, settled into a strictly romantic 19th century program that, however boldly played, sometimes felt precious to the point of claustrophobia, airless in the great outdoors.

It wasn’t that the program itself lacked a sense of adventure or distinction. Emotional variety was the missing element. Thematically, the program nodded to family lineage and gender bias circa the 1800s.

We heard Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestucke for Cello and Piano, Opus 73, a pleasant if less-than-profound work played assuredly by pianist Gayle Blankenburg and cellist Maggie Edmondson. For equal time, there was a performance of Trio in G Minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, Opus, by Schumann’s wife, Clara Wieck Schumann. Violinist Agnes Gottschewski joined in this spirited treatment.

Of keener historical interest, we also heard Blankenburg’s reading of Three Pieces for Piano, by the too-obscure Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The gifted sister of Felix settled for a life outside the limelight, hampered in her compositional calling by her gender. From the first piece’s dramatic ploy, with an octave melody in the right hand and cascading arpeggios in the left, a distinctive compositional voice is evident.

After intermission, the trio returned to the more familiar turf of the male Mendelssohn sibling’s Trio in D Minor, Opus 49. Gottschewski’s tone grew suddenly scratchy at times--victim of the great outdoors, perhaps--but hardly detracted from the nicely tailored performance and sense of ensemble unity.

There was nothing wrong with the concert, in this parlor without walls, that a little stylistic diversity wouldn’t have fixed. Each of these Huntington programs offers special gourmet dinners beforehand, and this one featured an entree of grilled flank steak, a suitably meaty harbinger of the music to come.