Composer Schickele’s ‘Serious’ Music Charms

An avid donner of many hats, Peter Schickele has many reputations that precede him, but they’re not necessarily the right ones, at least relative to his original calling as a composer. We know him as the erudite prankster behind the fictitious P.D.Q. Bach, and now as the voice of the unique radio program “Schickele Mix.”

But he is commanding increasing attention of late for his “serious” music, a fair amount of which was heard Sunday afternoon at Caltech, where the Lark String Quartet offered persuasive polished readings of his impressive Quartet No. 2 “In Memoriam,” from 1988, and last year’s Quintet No. 2 for Piano and Strings. Here, the composer himself played the piano part, which he claims he intentionally made simple, with his own technical requirements in mind.

Schickele in serious mode--which doesn’t mean poker-faced--displays a fetching expressivity and a warmth of approach, without sacrificing sophistication. He has no apparent dogma to push, and freely indulges his leanings toward jazz and pop without dabbling in cynical postmodern irony.

His Second Quartet, especially, is a marvelous piece, in which elements of a hushed requiem (for his late brother-in-law) meld with shards of bluegrass and rock riffing, to no harmful end. The Quintet was written in Brahms’ centennial year with nods toward his influence, but also includes brainy barn-dance effects in the final movement. If less moving than the Quartet, the work is full of small charms along its merry path.

For good measure, the quartet filled the concert’s second half with Brahms’ Quartet in C Minor, Opus 51, No. 1, and nicely demonstrated its ensemble cohesion and more traditional smarts.