Chamber group explores the contrasts

THE highlight of a three-part Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society concert Tuesday at Walt Disney Concert Hall turned out to be the most contemporary work -- Steven Stucky’s “Nell’ombra, nella luce” (“In Shadow, in Light”).

Premiered by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano in 2000, the piece announces in its title Stucky’s intentions of exploring oppositions, as he writes in a program note, between “ ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ musics.” But the title only hints at the shimmering beauties, intriguing glints of light in different realms of darkness and the astonishing transformation of each as the piece raises darkness into the heights at the end. It was played sensitively by violinists Mark Kashper and Elizabeth Baker, violist Hui Liu and cellist David Garrett.

Faure’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor, which closed the program, is an autumnal piece, a product of the composer’s 70s, completed only a few years before his death in 1924. If it embodies emotion recollected in tranquillity, it still has deep feelings roiling below the surface. For all its subtleties and lightness of touch, it could bear a more robust performance than it got from pianist Thomas Ades and his L.A. Phil colleagues, violinists Johnny Lee and Ingrid Chun, violist Dale Hikawa Silverman and cellist Brent Samuel.

Ades, who is in the midst of a two-month artist residency with the orchestra, initiated phrases with intensity, particularly in the oceanic first movement. But the string players tended to respond self-effacingly, perhaps a case of balance issues with the piano or of the subtleties not projecting much beyond the stage. At any rate, the slow movement, the heart of the piece, and the finale tended to sound aimless.

Jean Francaix’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, which opened the program, is also a late work, composed in 1994, three years before Francaix’s death. But it’s hardly the work of a spent or nostalgic composer. Perky and insouciant, the four-movement Trio received an invigorating performance by oboist Ariana Ghez, bassoonist Shawn Mouser and pianist Christopher Weldon. The give-and-take among the players suggested the light and deep conversations of longtime friends.

chris.pasles@latimes.com