Music Reviews : Mandolin Quartet in Chamber Series

On Sunday afternoon, the ever-on-the-move Chamber Music in Historic Sites series found itself in a rather unhistoric locale--a striking, white, modern home designed and occupied by Ron Goldman. On the other hand, one could say that it was a Historic Sight, as concertgoers were treated to a stunning view of Santa Monica Canyon and the Pacific Ocean that Bertolt Brecht (who lived nearby) and other European exiles once enjoyed.

The group that had to compete with this view was the Modern Mandolin Quartet, a fearless foursome dedicated to creating a repertory for their neglected instruments. In this concert, it meant transcriptions--first-rate classical bits and pieces squeezed and molded to fit the mandolin equivalent of a string quartet.

Why bother, you might ask? Well, there is the point to prove, that mandolins do have a flexibility of tone and attack that ought to be exploited. The real reason, one suspects, is that these talented mandolinists simply love these pieces and want to play them somehow.

The idea worked beautifully in 18th-Century music with Mozart’s delicate, pointed Overture to “The Magic Flute,” and the finale of the Haydn “Lark” Quartet whose fugue came off with brilliant style and humor. The Americans also did well--Bernstein’s “Cool” from “West Side Story” in a cleverly faithful rendition complete with “drum” solo, and a “Hoe-Down” from Copland’s “Rodeo” that broke smoothly into a bit of bluegrass free verse in the middle.

Sometimes, though, the music was taken completely out of its element--the Canzonetta from Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 1 sounded almost Russian, and Villa-Lobos’s “Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5” was almost unrecognizable. Bravely, the quartet tackled Ravel’s complete “Ma Mere l’Oye” suite, where aside from some imaginative effects, the mandolins had too sharp an edge for Ravel’s suave textures.

To their credit, Mike Marshall and Dana Rath (mandolins), Paul Binkley (mandola) and John Imholz (mandocello) generated a lot of irreverent, laid-back charm. One will not soon forget Marshall’s deadly accurate description of the Polka from Shostakovich’s “The Age of Gold”--”Completely silly stuff, but a gas.”