As part of the concerts season presented under the auspices of the Lark Society for Chamber Music, the Portland String Quartet presented Venti Cordi on the Nov. 11 at Woodford’s Congregational Church.

Venti Cordi means winds and strings and this is precisely what this group of talented musicians play at their concerts, namely chamber music for unlike instruments that one would not normally encounter.

Usually, strings perform with other strings as in a string quartet, or winds with other winds as in a wind quartet or quintet. Occasionally, a composer might add a wind instrument to a string group or even a piano but composers rarely do this in wind or brass groups. Voted as the Best Group (of this kind) in Maine by Down East magazine in 2017, the guiding lights of the group are Kathleen McNerney (oboe) and Dean Stein (violin/viola.). For this concert, other participants included: Gary Gorczyca, clarinet; Andrew Christopher Mark, cello; and Chiharu Naruse, piano. McNerney and Naruse are both on the faculty of Bates College and teach at the Portland Conservatory of Music.

Stein is the first violinist of the Portland String Quartet and is on the faculty of Bowdoin and also of Bates College. Gorczyca is a soloist in diverse groups in the Boston area and was a first call substitute clarinetist of the Boston Symphony, Mark is a member of the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and chair of the String Department of the Boston Conservatory of Music. I mention the background of these musicians only to underline the fact that they are an experienced and recognized group and their performance at this concert reflected their expertise.

The program for this concert included only 20th century composers: Etler, Milhaud, Smit and Hindemith. There was also a extra musical theme to connect the inclusion of these diverse group of composers. Paul Hindemith was an established composer who had to flee Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. (The string quartet he played in had two Jewish members and his wife was half Jewish.)

The Nazi’s declared his music to be “degenerate.” His most significant work is the opera “Mathis Der Mahler.” He taught at Yale for many years and one of his students was Alvin Etler! Smit and his wife were both murdered by the Nazi’s (at Sobibor) because they were Jewish. The remaining composer, Milhaud, hailed from Provence (in southern France) and was descended from an old Jewish family in that region. Connecting these threads is the fact that the concert was given at the anniversary of the infamous “Christlenacht” (in 1938) where hundreds of synagogues were burned, glass from Jewish businesses were broken (and the event got its name) and Jews were beaten and arrested.

All of the works performed received superb performances. It was unusual to have violinist Stein expertly switch over to viola in the Etler. (Stein showed again why he is where he is.) While oboist McNerney shone in this work, she really distinguished herself in the work by Smit. Clarinetist Gorczyca displayed a classic tone with sure technique in each selection he played. Cellist Mark displayed a sure hand and his pizzicatti served as a perfect foil for the oboe in the work by Smit.

It was the work by Milhaud that one could easily describe as charming in an otherwise program whose music was anything but. The closing work by Hindemith brought forth incredibly superb playing by all but I must single out Naruse for her performance in this very demanding work.

As an aside I would suggest that in the future, the number of works chosen for performance might be less complex and intellectually demanding without changing the mission of Venti Cordi. After all, an audience of 150 or more would make the concerts more satisfying for the performers as well as making those concerts fiscally more sustainable.

The next concert in the 2017-18 series at Woodford’s will feature a Valentine’s Day concert by Ronald Lantz, violin and Laura Kargul, piano on Feb. 18.

— Dr. Morton Gold is a composer/conductor, retired educator and an arts reviewer for the Journal Tribune.