A Subdued Evening With Latinoamericano

We look avidly to the Cuarteto Latinoamericano for its fearless, feisty excursions into the vast, once-ignored Latin American quartet repertoire. So then, what does one make of the program that they are presenting on the Music Guild series this week, with only one of the four works on tap of Latin American origin?

In any case, the Cuarteto didn’t seem to display much passion for Brahms’ String Quartet in A minor, Opus 51, No. 2 Monday night at Cal State Northridge; even in passages where the players could have broken out with some volatility, they sounded subdued, a bit flaccid. Debussy’s String Quartet also lacked fire, but at least they were able to produce a soulfully hushed, concentrated stillness in the third movement.

The one Latin American work that they did play was the Villa-Lobos String Quartet No. 5, the most immediately appealing quartet of the composer’s cycle of 17, and the one with the most overt Brazilian folk influences.

There was to be another piece on the program by Joaquin Turina, but that was swapped for a brief early Puccini rarity, “Crisantemi,” a melancholy single movement whose themes were later incorporated into the opera “Manon Lescaut.” The Cuarteto kept it moving fluidly, limpidly and, thanks to their avoidance of schmaltz, effectively.

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The program repeats tonight at 8 p.m. at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, 4401 8th St., L.A. (310) 552-3030.