MUSIC REVIEW : Chamber Delivers a Sound Mozart and Mendelssohn

SAN DIEGO — Mainly Mozart took advantage of the Old Globe Theatre’s comfortable acoustics and lack of airborne distractions with a thoughtfully chosen chamber concert Monday night. This calm, intimate setting for Mozart and Mendelssohn--the festival’s only indoor program--was marred only by small herd of irksome latecomers, who made their unwelcome contribution to the opening Mozart Flute Quartet in A Major, K. 298.

The Flute Quartet sailed by respectably--almost benignly--as befits this drawing room exercise. Flutist Judith Pearce found little to ignite her musical imagination, but she compensated with a consistently pretty tone and agile articulation of Mozart’s modest arabesques. Cellist Sarah Cleveland provided a stylish, finely etched bass line; violist Laura Kuennen and violinist Martin Chalifour proved equal to their tasks.

The evening’s high point was a radiant performance of Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat, K. 452. Because the composer did not indulge in brilliant technical display, the quintet can sound rather staid. (Such a lackluster performance opened La Jolla’s 1988 SummerFest.) But the sophisticated Mainly Mozart players brought emotional depth, persuasive rhetoric and keen sense of integration to this substantial opus.

Oboist Eric Barr’s supple legato set an admirable standard for the ensemble, which included clarinetist Melvin Warner, bassoonist Nancy Goeres, French horn Jerry Folsom and pianist Gustavo Romero. At the keyboard, the fluent, polished Romero found the happy medium between obliging accompaniment and the assertiveness of a concerto soloist.

Mendelssohn’s redoubtable Octet for strings, with its effervescent bravura, aptly complemented the Mozart Quintet. Under the driving impetus of first violinist William Preucil, the Octet broke the posted speed limit on numerous occasions. But, if the performance elicited all the surface excitement of a motion picture car chase, the players seemed content to remain on its glossy surface. The ploy worked for the Old Globe audience, however, which jumped to its feet to applaud the breathless finale.