Music Reviews : ‘New’ Cleveland Quartet Bows at Bing Theater

For the decidedly with-it crowd that packed the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater Wednesday evening, the Cleveland Quartet’s playing rather than their repertory was most likely the chief attraction.

This was, after all, the local debut of the revamped ensemble, a new first violinist having recently signed on. His name is William Preucil, the concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony a few seasons back. If the Cleveland wanted to radically change its aural and interpretive image through his acquisition, it have do done so in the most positive terms.

This has been a frustrating group during its 20-odd-year past, loaded with talent but frequently raw in tone and interpretively unsettled, its fortunes rising and falling on the erratic bow and high-strung temperament of its brilliant founding first violinist, Donald Weilerstein, who left to pursue a solo career.

Preucil is a cooler number, his tone smaller and sweeter than Weilerstein’s, his interpretive instincts better integrated with the lively but rational attitudes of his colleagues, second violinist Peter Salaff and cellist Paul Katz (both founders) and violist James Dunham, a hero of our local scene prior to joining the Cleveland a few seasons back.

Monday’s program opened with the Mozart D-minor Quartet, K. 421, a shakedown cruise for two wobbly movements, settling down in the Minuet to establish the evening’s ultimately satisfying tone.

Subsequently, one could revel in the skewed lyricism of Berg’s Opus 3 Quartet, projected with stunning linear clarity and clear-eyed perception of its heaving, sighing, singing heart. And, finally, Beethoven’s First “Rasumovsky” Quartet, played with irresistible warmth, rhythmic agility and impeccable ensemble balance.