MUSIC REVIEW : Pepperdine Hosts Tokyo Quartet

Pepperdine University went for the gold by presenting the Tokyo String Quartet, in its only local appearance of the season, on Sunday in the acoustically friendly Smothers Theatre, a venue used for more humble offerings.

It was an inspired decision, with the players--violinists Peter Oundjian and Kikuei Ikeda, violist Kazuhide Isomura, cellist Sadao Harada--in peak form technically while exhibiting an even greater degree of daring than is their custom.

The program offered no surprises: Beethoven’s Quartets in F, Opus 18, No. 1, and E minor, Opus 59, No. 2, surrounding Dvorak’s “American” Quartet. But in readings as spirited and accomplished as theirs one could savor the grandeur and originality of all three works anew.

One need no longer speak about such chamber music requisites as proper balance and centered intonation with the Tokyo. Rather, in this instance, one might note that in dispatching the finale of Beethoven’s E-minor Quartet so vigorously and speedily, and getting ever faster in the process, the players courted disaster.

But this was the Tokyo String Quartet, and instead of running the music off the rails, they caused it to emerge even more than usually tense and dramatic.