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Classical

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The bar was set high for the new concert season by the Emerson String Quartet last Friday. Opening the Chamber Music Monterey Bay series in Carmel, the all-American, award-winning, internationally acclaimed Emerson dazzled its audience with glitzy readings of Haydn, Shostakovich and Ravel.

This involved not a little premeditation and exaggeration. In all cases, the Emerson had obviously designed their performances in great detail. Missing, as a result, was spontaneity, a certain spirit of the moment. Haydn''s Quartet in D "Lark" began with surprising leisure, but ended with a breathtaking finale at breakneck speed.

The emotional center of the concert was Shostakovich''s Quartet No. 14 in F sharp, which, after an ironic but jaunty opening movement, gives way to a deep resignation, crafted with astonishing skill from contrapuntal techniques. Using short mottoes of notes, and long-stretched chromatic lines, the composer came up with a kind of deeply felt objectivity. Since its premiere in 1973, two years before Shostakovich''s death, the effect for many has been mystifying, especially with its long, slow, final adagio. This reading would have gained expressive depth with more insight into the composer behind the music.

For Ravel''s popular Quartet in F, objectivity alone works splendidly. It''s a piece that celebrates compositional virtuosity and makes no pretense at expressing deep emotion. In this, Emerson was supremely effective and, once again, breathtaking in their delivery.

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The Week before last, the Carmel Music Society hosted Metropolitan Opera veteran Florence Quivar in a program devoid of opera arias. But for those who craved the Quivar of reputation, the mezzo-soprano''s lush tone and sensual phrasing offered compelling compensation.

In a program apparently designed for the aficionado, Quivar presented a sampler of fin de siŠcle Reynaldo Hahn, Schumann''s tender Frauenliebe und-leben, six songs by Charles Ives, a cycle of youthful lieder on nocturnal poems by Alban Berg, and five songs after Rckert by Mahler. While she herself took pleasure in this small treasury, Quivar displayed little more than a narrow range of expression.

Much of the pleasure came from pianist JJ Penna who took responsibility for some of the glossed-over vocal inflections, like the Baroque allusions in the Hahn and the quirky sparkles in the Ives. The Berg called for a chromatic keyboard that asked the singer to etch all the colors of the texts, something which Quivar did only slightly.

At last, Quivar and Penna found their mutual stride in the Mahler, culminating with outstanding results in >"Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" and >"Um Mitternacht." As encores, two Negro spirituals disclosed the full expressive depth of Quivar''s heart and soul.

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A satisfying evening by the Los Angeles Piano Quartet was clouded by a deception. Without any mention of it in the sponsoring Mozart Society''s program handout, this was not the same ensemble described in print. Only cellist Peter Rejto remains of the original, and the new (and much younger) group doesn''t play at that level. Violinist Ayako Yoshida, pianist Xak Bjerken and violist Katherine Murdoch offer an eager enthusiasm, but not the rich artistry and virtuosic finesse of erstwhile members violinist Joseph Genualdi, violist Ronald Copes and pianist James Bonn. The program, in any case, contained a virtually unknown gem: Dvorak''s Piano Quartet in D exposed a trove of jewels in the lengthy variations of its second movement.

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Last Week''s Quiz: What composer, no doubt speaking of himself, remarked, "Music should strike fire from a man"? Answer: Beethoven.

This Week''s Quiz: What celebrated concert singer said shortly before her death, "Now I''ll have eine kleine Pause"?

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Classical Calendar

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Broadway Returns to Carmel Friday, 8pm. Vocal quartet performs benefit fundraiser for Carmel Music Society. Sunset Center, San Carlos Street and 9th Avenue, Carmel. $25-40. Dinner party and cast party tickets also available. 625-9938.

Ensemble Monterey Friday, 8:15pm; Saturday, 8pm. John Anderson opens "Made in America" season conducting Copeland''s Appalachian Spring, Quiet City, and Clarinet Concerto, featuring trumpeter Charles Old, clarinetist Bruce Foster, and Deborah Gruenhagen, cor anglais. Friday: Steinbeck Center, 1 Main St., Salinas. Saturday: Music Hall, Monterey Peninsula College, 980 Fremont St., Monterey. $15/$12. 372-4523

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