Music Review : Philharmonic Group Performs at Gindi

The program Monday night by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Society at Gindi Auditorium wasn’t quite the festival of esoterica originally intended. Due to the indisposition of guest violinist Miriam Fried, the centerpiece of the evening--Kodaly’s Duo for violin and cello--was replaced by Brahms’ familiar E-minor Sonata for cello and piano.

The sonata was given the advantage of vigor and forthrightness, where star teams tend to linger over the Brahmsian languor. More rehearsal time would doubtless have sharpened the ensemble between cellist Daniel Rothmuller and overly assertive guest pianist Armen Guzelimian, normally the most sympathetic of partners.

The evening began with a welcome rarity, the quirky 1938 “Bachiana Brasileira” No. 6 of Heitor Villa-Lobos, executed with terrific panache and skill by flutist Janet Ferguson, with David Breidenthal providing a rich, continuo-like bassoon accompaniment.

Mozart’s E-flat Serenade for wind octet, K. 375, may not have found the Philharmonic players in perfect accord at every turn. But considering the ad hoc nature of the ensemble, the performance not only honored Mozartean wit and lyricism but proved remarkably free of major blemishes.

Mozart awards the spotlight to the first clarinet, a position filled with energy and a wealth of warm, handsomely modulated tone on Monday by David Howard, energetically, brightly seconded by oboists Carolyn Hove and David Weiss, clarinetist Michele Zukovsky, bassoonists Patricia Heimerl and David Breidenthal, hornists Brian Drake and Carol Drake.

It should be noted that the Philharmonic’s oboe, clarinet and bassoon principals took secondary parts: a nice democratic touch and, as the results proved in the Serenade and a delectable encore, an arrangement (not by Mozart) of Osmin’s aria from “Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail,” a tribute to the depth of the orchestra’s wind section.