The Calder Quartet, on the straight and narrow

The breathless official biography of the Calder Quartet quotes a critic who evoked the Beatles’ appearance 40 years ago on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to describe the effect these four string quartet players had on the crowd at one Los Angeles concert.

If so, the mass hysteria has somewhat died down. At the Ford Amphitheatre on Monday night, the audience was small, generally on the mature side and sedate. Four stylish young men, well dressed in dark suits and black shirts, walked onstage and played well-mannered Haydn. Actually, it wasn’t Haydn that was so well mannered but the playing of the String Quartet in G, Opus 76, No. 1.

The Calder, made up of four recent USC grads and now a resident ensemble at the Colburn School, is clearly a quartet on the rise. On one side of its calling card may be the qualities of youth and flair and the promise of Beatles-like hysteria. But on the other is elegance. And this is, at heart, a traditional string quartet with, thus far, apparently little taste for interpretive liberties or anything terribly far out.

In fact, the Calder’s Haydn playing verged on the blandly traditional. One phrase after the other fell smoothly, suavely in place. The energy level was at a moderate setting. The four men demonstrate an easygoing agreement and considerable charm. They care a lot about appearances, about the fine points of their ensemble. But there was little drama, let alone a sense that Haydn was one of music’s greatest tricksters. Rather this was a Haydn who, as the often objectionable program notes put it, was “a hell of a nice guy.”

Bartok’s Fourth String Quartet, which followed, is so full of event and gripping tension that it’s almost impossible for any players not to turn up the heat. The Calder did, but not to a point that it ruffled the ensemble. There were also moments of beautifully atmospheric playing; in the middle movement, shimmering chords joined the sounds of lush nature in this pleasant outdoor setting. But again, a listener had the feeling of an interpretation so worked out and worked over that nothing could surprise.

Then suddenly, after the fourth movement, first violinist Benjamin Jacobson announced a short break and the quartet left the stage for what felt like a long while. Finally back, it launched into the Finale with exactly the ferocity it had lacked all night. Though the situation was never explained to the audience, he had simply broken a string.

After intermission, some of the Bartokian fire remained as the Calder was joined by veteran American pianist Claude Frank for Schumann’s E-flat Quintet for Piano and Strings. The piece is Schumann at his most robust, and the collaboration with Frank seemed to invigorate both parties. The 78-year-old pianist, a restrained classicist, nonetheless retains a modicum of youthful vigor. Interestingly, it was he who helped loosen the Calder’s classical restraint. There were even, for the first time all evening, a few ensemble mishaps, which, like the broken string earlier, only served to excite the quartet in the best sense.

The promise of the Calder is large. But the members still need to grow out of their musically timid, pat ways. I hope strings keep breaking and other unpredictable things happen that encourage them to take chances. After all, that other fab four didn’t exactly play it safe.