Cuban Ensemble Performs With Power

A recent Los Angeles Times Poll indicated that many Angelenos have little or no interest in professional football. Sunday afternoon there was plenty of supporting evidence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where by Super Bowl kickoff, the line for Camerata Romeu’s concert sprawled halfway around the Leo S. Bing Theater, with 30 minutes still to go before the Sundays at Four program began.

Word was clearly out about the Cuban string ensemble, a female octet conducted by Zenaida Romeu and drilled into a robust rhythmic machine of astonishing vitality and precision, playing a demanding U.S. debut--broadcast live on KUSC-FM (91.5), as always with this series--completely from memory.

Tone and intonation were often coarse, but the emphasis here seemed to be on power rather than finesse.

Not that the music on Romeu’s Latino agenda--most of it transcriptions--wouldn’t have benefited from something richer and warmer in sound. In pieces like Jose White’s “La Bella Cubana” and a group of Ernesto Lecuona’s dances, the Camerata substituted insinuating inflection for tonal opulence. Though it would have been nice to have had both, there was no denying the group’s stylistic authority and persuasive articulation.

The Camerata’s cleanly sculpted rhythms and explosive dynamic contrasts found grateful employment in a concerto movement by Carlos Farinas and in Roberto Valera’s “Musica para cuerdas,” striking mixtures of neo-Baroque textures and island dance impulses. Two of Leo Brouwer’s evocative “Cuatro canciones remotas” stretched her ensemble’s atmospheric abilities to the limits, but Romeu kept them alive with motion and artful nuance.

Non-Cuban composers represented were Argentine Astor Piazzolla, with a bravura arrangement of “La Muerte del Angel,” and Mexican Arturo Marquez, with the post-minimalist metrical gamesmanship of his dazzling homage to Brazilian jazz and world music master Egberto Gismonti. Romeu and her Camerata delivered them with characterful zest.

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* Camerata Romeu also performs tonight at 8, Gindi Auditorium, University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive, $25, (213) 850-2000; Thursday, 10 a.m., Roy O. Disney Recital Hall, CalArts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, free, (805) 255-1050; and Thursday, 8 p.m., Cal State Northridge Performing Arts Center, Plummer Street at Zelzah avenue, free, (818) 677-5768.