MUSIC REVIEW : Harbison Plays in Violin Recital at Schoenberg

One thing is certain about violinist Rose Mary Harbison: She plays with unshakable assurance. And with good reason; she not only seems to believe wholeheartedly in the music she plays but has the technical wherewithal to pull it off.

At the Schoenberg Institute at USC Wednesday evening, she plunged zealously into the Andante from Schoenberg’s infrequently heard Violin Concerto, Opus 36. One had to admire her command of this difficult work and the passion she put into it. Impressive, too, was pianist Leonard Stein’s mastery of the severe rhythmic complexities of the composer’s own reduction of the orchestral part.

Later, the two players made an equivocal case for Schubert’s Fantasy in C, D. 934. They performed boldly and energetically, delivering some soaring crescendos. But many measures went by with no dynamic changes and absolutely rigid tempos. Where was the subtlety, the nuance? This was Schubert that could have glided through air, but instead seemed pushed through quicksand.

To no one’s surprise, however, the violinist proved an empathic and skilled advocate for John Harbison’s “Four Songs of Solitude.” The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s outgoing new-music adviser (and the violinist’s husband) uses an economy of thematic means in a tightly organized, logical fashion. Employing an occasional folk song-like melody or a peppy rhythmic figure, the songs successfully tread the path between accessibility and cerebralism.

The duo began with an intense, often dramatic reading of Messiaen’s Theme and Variations of 1932.