Berlin quartet probes Shostakovich quartet

Returning to Southern California after four years, the distinguished part-time ensemble Philharmonia Quartett Berlin played Thursday night in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Its deeply satisfying program ended with Shostakovich’s kaleidoscopic Fifth String Quartet.

The work’s multifaceted profile was accorded this ensemble’s full concentration, in a reading of wide contrasts and integrated narrative continuity. The four players from the Berlin Philharmonic -- they are the principal concertmaster and other string section leaders -- produce communicative performances that touch all bases in the composer’s broad range. This performance flowed compellingly through many complex pathways. The hushed ending underscored the deep probing of the entirety.

Even more touching was the evening’s centerpiece, Benjamin Britten’s evocative Second Quartet (1945), a souvenir of the English composer’s prolific wartime period. It is a haunting, riveting, emotionally rich work of striking originality; these musicians, violinists Daniel Stabrawa and Christian Stadelmann, violist Neithard Resa and cellist Jan Diesselhorst, gave it a full measure of musical concentration and fine detailing. Their long association with one another resonates clearly in everything they play.

The program began with a neat but dutiful performance of Beethoven’s Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2. It missed much of the work’s lightness and humor.