PERFORMING ARTS

Vogler String Quartet

The announcement preceding the Vogler String Quartet's concert Saturday evening was a curious one: Two of the works on the program had been rehearsed only once, the previous evening. Dumbarton Concerts went into crisis mode last week to find a replacement for the Vogler's guest cellist, with whom the quartet had prepared a pair of two-cello works, the Arensky Quartet in A Minor and the sublime Schubert Quintet in C. They located Inbal Segev in New York and she was free to meet and rehearse with the quartet Friday evening, preceding an all-day travel ordeal to get here. Not knowing any of this, I would have described this as one of the best chamber music concerts I've heard all season. Under these circumstances, I'd have to proclaim it a near-miracle.

Formed in 1985 in Germany, the Vogler Quartet still plays with youthful elan, now tempered with deep experience and musical honesty. The players' interpretations bore in on the essential musical truths rather than passing allures. Most impressive is their intonation, which in the Haydn Op. 64 No. 6, and in the slower sections of the Schubert was well nigh perfect. The instruments sang in resonant concord in a way one seldom hears in a live concert.

The two violinists were rather sparing with vibrato, and the contrast with the more soloistic Segev was jarring at times. But those who missed this concert missed an evening of very special musicmaking.

-- Robert Battey

Opera Theatre Of Northern Virginia

From the courtroom to the open sea, Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia gave drama, nuance and unflagging energy to its performances Friday night at the Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre.

In Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury," the caricatures of judge, plaintiff and defendant maintained humor and freshness. Throughout the breach-of-promise-of-marriage case, Ole Hass elicited sighs from a doo-wopish quartet of stenographers with a sleek tenor and a white suit, and as the glamorous, bejeweled plaintiff, Catherine Carlin charmed the jury and the judge with bright-voiced coloratura. With a polished bass-baritone, Christopher Austin made the most of his role as a bumbling judge, checking his reflexes with his gavel when bored. Director Jane Christenson created a stage that was lively but never too busy.

OTNV paired the short opera with Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Riders to the Sea." In contrast to the witty patter and singable waltzes and ballads of Gilbert and Sullivan, Vaughan Williams sets a bleak, harmonically uncertain landscape for Ireland's west coast. Accented chords swell and recede, creating a sense of waves -- literal and of grief. Maurya, played by Leslie Mutchler, has lost five sons to the sea as the opera begins, six by its end. After recent performances as Hansel and Carmen, it is clear that Mutchler's range is vast. She aged believably, and effectively used her dark, clear voice to convey mournful and hollow qualities. Carlin returned to play the daughter Cathleen, and Daniele Lorio showed a promising soprano as Nora.

-- Ronni Reich