Angeles String Quartet Finds Wit and Surprise in Haydn

The locally based Angeles String Quartet has been elbow-deep in Haydn of late, engaged in a five-year recording project of the composer’s complete quartet literature. It’s no mean feat. This year will finally see the fruits of their efforts on the shelves, as recordings of more than 80 separate works start to be released.

Local audiences have caught glimpses of the Angeles’ ongoing Haydn saga in concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art over the years. On Wednesday, they were at it again after cancelling an earlier performance because of violinist Kathleen Lenski’s arm surgery. From the sound of things, all is well now.

With measured ensemble playing from Lenski, violinist Steven Miller, violist Brian Dembow and cellist Stephen Erdody, the group conveyed an air of triumph--or rather, controlled triumph, this being Haydn. His quartets serve as models of gentility and poise, and were handled with care here, but not too much care. Out of Haydn’s manicured surfaces, splashes of sly wit and surprise arise, and the Angeles was at the ready.

Certain moments stood out. A lustrous sonority distinguished the slow movement of the Quartet in E-flat major, Opus 20, No. 1, and the Angeles dignified the rolling momentum, abrupt note flurries and subtle dynamic tiers of the Presto in the Quartet in F minor/major, Opus 55, No. 2. It really hit its stride on the final work, the Quartet in F, Opus 74, No. 2, which shows Haydn’s stylistic growth, but also clearly links to his earlier writing.

The Angeles is impressively lost in its devotion to this composer, and that’s a fine place to be lost. An evening of well-played Haydn, such as this, makes it seem as though all is momentarily right with the world.