Performance realities

Classical musicians’ vaunted claims of authentic performance practice have become almost a mantra. So it’s a relief to hear of a new group that calls itself Ensemble Inauthentica. Made up of musicians who left Southwest Chamber Music in 2003, Inauthentica is a chamber music collective whose roster is not confined to the same players all the time.

The core group consists of violinist Mark Menzies, pianist Gayle Blankenburg, flutist Dorothy Stone and cellist Paula Fehrenbach.

The name came from a concert Menzies devised for the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003. “We were performing two pieces of John Cage, ‘Theater Piece’ and ‘Music for Five,’ ” he says. “These were indeterminate pieces. I realized that going back to any authenticity would be wrong. You were meant to re-create the piece in the circumstances in which you live. That’s how those pieces get to work.”

Inauthentica will play works by Hugh Livingston, Lucky Mosko, Roger Reynolds and Wolfgang Rihm at REDCAT on Wednesday.

-- Chris Pasles