PERFORMING ARTS

-- Ronni Reich

St. Petersburg String Quartet

One of the perks for string quartets invited to play at the Library of Congress is the privilege of performing on the library's fabulous Stradivarius instruments. But one doesn't just jump into a Ferrari and speed off to the race. Musicians must arrive a few days early to road-test the rare specimens.

The St. Petersburg String Quartet, with additional violist Michael Tree, arrived Wednesday to test the Cremonese Strads for Friday's concert of music by Mendelssohn, Schnittke and Dvorak.

The first violin drives Mendelssohn's String Quintet, Op. 87. Alla Aranovskaya bowed with extraordinary gusto in the vigorous outer movements, but the ride wasn't always smooth. Her 1699 "Castelbarco" Strad occasionally veered off pitch or emitted a dry rasp -- sounds not typical of her own instrument. The genteel scherzando -- such a contrast with Mendelssohn's typically bustling scherzos -- danced cheerfully, with both violas droning under a delicate melody.

Drones and drumbeats figured prominently in Dvorak's String Quintet, Op. 97, written in the Czech-settled village of Spillville, Iowa. Like its popular sibling, the "American" Quartet, the music is flush with the spirit of open spaces and native sounds.

Indian-like rhythms and rustic strumming effects displayed the requisite bounce, but with little joy. Except for violist Boris Vayner's lonesome solo and a lovely theme and variations, the performance sounded more like Dvorak was in Spillville for business than vacation.

Sandwiched between the two quintets, Alfred Schnittke's brilliantly witty, biting and sometimes violent String Quartet No. 3 received a muscular and transparent performance. All of Schnittke's borrowed fragments (from Beethoven, Shostakovich and Lassus) and inner voices -- either muffled, swirling or shrieking -- were charged with energy.

The vintage Strads seemed to enjoy the workout.

-- Tom Huizenga

Mobtown Modern

Modern-art museums are a natural home for contemporary music, as demonstrated again when Baltimore's Contemporary Museum launched the Mobtown Modern series in January. On Friday night, curators Brian Sacawa and Erik Spangler led a small group of musicians in a brief but alluring survey of minimalism to close out Mobtown's maiden mini-season. None of the so-called minimalist composers approves of the term, but it is an effective description of the compositional process, a subtle variation of repeated short musical patterns, through which larger structures gradually grow out of the original cell.

Philip Glass was represented by "Music in Similar Motion," a breathless exploration of a constantly undulating arpeggiated pattern. Steve Reich's "Vermont Counterpoint" combined live and recorded sounds by the versatile Katayoon Hodjati on piccolo, flute and alto flute. That treble-oriented work was contrasted with Michael Gordon's "The Low Quartet," scored for the unforgettable combination of four baritone saxophones. Violinist Lisa Liu, after a difficult trip to Baltimore, was visibly flustered during her performance of Nico Muhly's "Honest Music," as the prerecorded part of the work emanated from only one speaker.

The concert concluded by going back to the origins of minimalism, with Terry Riley's "In C." A set of 53 melodic fragments that are combined improvisationally, the work can last from one to three hours when played by a larger ensemble, unfolding in a way that recalls the majestic evocation of the Rhine at the opening of Wagner's "Das Rheingold." With guiding rhythms provided by beatboxer Shodekeh, it became instead a sort of hip-hop chamber chill piece, an impression reinforced by the scented candles and colored lighting in the dark museum.

-- Charles T. Downey