A Brazilian-Style, Bluesy ‘Serenade’

Think chamber music masterpieces for the clarinet and you probably think of Mozart and Brahms. That could be scary company for a new clarinet quintet, but Miguel del Aguila’s immediately endearing “Pacific Serenade” bore the association comfortably in its premiere Sunday afternoon at the Biltmore Hotel.

Titled after the Pacific Serenades concert series for which it was commissioned, the three-movement work evokes a languorous night of pristinely bluesy and vaguely Brazilian moods. It is quiet, lyrically spacious, postmodern music, but not without some haunted flutterings in its darker corners.

A Uruguayan American composer and pianist now locally based, Aguila writes skillfully for his instruments, giving a clarinetist of Gary Gray’s caliber ample opportunity to float long, limber lines, as Gray did with effortless poise and eloquent point. The idiomatic string parts, sensitively played by violinists Miwako Watanabe and Connie Kupka, violist Simon Oswell and cellist David Speltz, actively interact with the clarinet’s central voice, most memorably in the singing harmonics of the finale.

The level of ensemble playing remained impressively high after intermission, in a finely nuanced, gracefully brooding account of Brahms’ B-minor Clarinet Quintet, Opus 115. Almost overly ripened in the wet acoustic of the Biltmore’s Emerald Room, the handsome reading had everything going for it other than the final degree of rapture that coexists with its famously autumnal poignancy.

The program began, minus clarinet, with Mozart’s D-minor String Quartet, K. 421. Others have put a more urgent edge on the passions here, but these players suggested that patrician understatement may serve as well, particularly if the austere spirit is supported with generous sound.

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* Pacific Serenades repeats this program tonight at 7:30, Westwood Methodist Church, 10497 Wilshire Blvd. $5-$20. (213) 852-0260.