An Enchanting Treatment of Orpheus Myth

The enterprising folks at Southwest Chamber Music have always supported an intriguing and international mix of composers. Thea Musgrave and her darkly enchanted “Orfeo III” were the center of attention Friday and Saturday as the organization opened its summer series at the Huntington Library.

Born in Scotland but long a resident of the U.S., the 71-year-old composer has strong ties to Southern California but not quite the concert presence that her polished and probing music deserves here. She was on hand Friday to introduce her instrumental examination of the Orpheus myth.

A solo flute is the protagonist, wordlessly mourning and pleading. Musgrave’s concept is that Euridice exists only in Orfeo’s memory. To locate her in an idealized past musically, Musgrave gives Euridice a generous chunk of hit tunes from Gluck’s famous opera on the subject.

Quotation is not without peril, but Musgrave integrates her materials to stunningly poignant effect. Flutist Dorothy Stone projected Orfeo’s anguish with wide-ranging fluency, and violinist Christine Frank played Euridice’s songs with appropriately glazed beauty. Violinist Agnes Gottschewski, violist Jan Karlin, cellist Maggie Edmondson and bassist Tom Peters completed the poised ensemble, conducted with dramatic sympathy by Jeff von der Schmidt.

After intermission the strings--minus the bass, and with Gottschewski in the first chair--offered an assured and expressive account of Mozart’s dazzling Quartet in G, K. 387. This was a well-considered performance, rich in nuance and ensemble interplay. Gripped by the vivacity of the playing and the effortless ingenuity of the music, the audience fell--as almost all do--for Mozart’s final joke, bursting into applause at the fake ending and burying the final tag under clapping and astonished laughter.

To open, there was Mozart’s D-major Flute Quartet, K. 285--basically a concerto with budget accompaniment. Stone delivered it with stylistically blunt vigor, most affecting in the haunting central romance. Gottschewski, Karlin and Edmondson supported her tidily.