Lindsay String Quartet bids U.S. a fitting farewell

In summer 2005, the long-lived and superior British ensemble the Lindsay String Quartet will bring its four-decade career to a close. Thursday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, it gave its final U.S. performance under the auspices of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Characteristically, this farewell appearance offered variety, challenge and dramatic intensity, qualities the Lindsay has specialized in since its founding in 1966.

Haydn’s Quartet in F, Opus 77, No. 2; Janacek’s First Quartet; and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat, Opus 130, with the “Grosse Fugue,” Opus 133, replacing the finale, made up the program. The playing by violinists Peter Cropper and Ronald Birks, cellist Bernard Gregor-Smith and violist Robin Ireland (who joined the others more than 20 years ago) was tight, firm and resourceful, notwithstanding some technical lapses and moments of discontinuity.

Janacek’s “Kreutzer” Sonata quartet held the most interest through its maze of musical devices, intertwining narratives and cogency of expression, here well realized.

Beethoven’s extended Opus 130 showed the players’ long familiarity with its complex form and the interconnectedness of its five disparate movements. The “Grosse Fugue,” still an otherworldly experience to most listeners, made its points effectively, though the playing fell short of immaculate.

Haydn’s sublime F-major work opened the program in an ideally mellow reading.