Carmina Holds Tight Control

Little things mean a lot to the members of the Carmina Quartet, returning to Southern California Wednesday night at the L.A. County Museum of Art. Firm control, rich detail and near-perfect balances characterized the Swiss ensemble’s playing of a varied program, music by Beethoven, Berg, Brahms and Paul Giger. But the focus proved tighter than the repertory required.

This was most notable in Brahms’ autumnal Quartet in A minor, Opus 51, No. 2, a lyric and melancholy masterpiece. Here, the Carmina players--violinists Matthias Enderle and Susanne Frank, violist Wendy Champney and cellist Stephan Goerner--engaged in constant grooming of the composer’s materials without providing a sweeping overview. The details proved mostly admirable, the total unconvincing.

More susceptible to the ensemble’s tight control, Beethoven’s C-minor Quartet of Opus 18 and Berg’s intense and compact Quartet, Opus 3, received compelling performances, readings of thought-through energy and meaningful nuance.

Giger’s recently completed “Quartinen der Verganglichkeit” is a 12-minute essay in quiet thoughtfulness that mostly occupies the dynamic landscape at and below mezzo-piano--a fascinating locale indeed.