Tokyo 4 strings out fine Russian fare

If the performers hadn't been taking the music so seriously andplaying so well, we might have been tempted to giggle midway throughthe Tokyo String Quartet's performance of Borodin's String QuartetNo. 2 Thursday night in Ravinia's Murray Theatre.

It's one thing to know that the piece contains famous melodiesthat the program notes delicately describe as being "used in thepasticcio musical `Kismet.' " It's another to hear the foursome intheir white dinner jackets launch into "Baubles, Bangles and Beads"and "This Is My Beloved" (or is it "Wandering Star"?).

But the tunes were oddly fitting in the all-Russian program thatopened with typically astringent Shostakovich and closed withtypically lush Tchaikovsky. All we needed was some Rachmaninoff toremind us of those overwrought movie scores churned out by Hollywoodcomposers in the 1950s.

There was nothing funny, however, about the way the Tokyomembers - violinists Peter Oundjian and Kikuei Ikeda, violistKazuhide Isomura and cellist Sadao Harada - played. The firstmovement of the Shostakovich sounded a bit glib; full of correctaccents, precise phrasing and little intensity. But from the secondmovement through the concert's final notes, the players werecompletely wrapped up in the music.

Written in 1960, Shostakovich's Seventh Quartet is relativelyshort and not as dark or dissonant as the best-known of his other 14quartets. But the second movement, with its spare texture andmelancholy themes, took on an appropriately wintry chill. The finalmovement's faster-paced theme had a perverse jauntiness, the twoviolins sounding slightly mad as they sawed and whined.

Throughout the concert, the Tokyo players were attuned to eachother, sounding like a single instrument even in the most abruptpauses or shifts of tempo or volume. Playing in unison, they gavethe famous Borodin theme the expansive sweep of a grand waltz. WithOundjian in the lead, they paused at the very peak of the themebefore plunging back into the unhurried, swirling dance.

Tchaikovsky's "Souvenier de Florence" was a rousing finale.Augmented by cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and violist Toby Hoffman, thequartet became a sextet that at times had the full-bodied sound of astring orchestra.

Individual players shone in the piece, especially Isomura andHarada, who filled the Rossini-like melody of the second movementwith intense passion. The players all but leaped out of their chairsas their bows bobbed over strings in the furious rush of the music'sfinal bars.

Pianist Ruth Laredo joins the quartet for its two final Raviniaprograms this weekend. At 8 tonight, they will play an all-Frenchprogram with pieces by Debussy, Franck and Ravel. At 3 p.m.tomorrow, the concert will feature Czech composers Janacek, Smetanaand Dvorak.