Southwest Chamber Music Society at Newport Museum

The music of Franz Schubert must be imbued with a singing quality. Not just the vocal works, but all of his music. Unless performers impart each phrase as if sung from deep within, the beauty and profundity of Schubert’s music remain disguised as merely pretty tunes sometimes exploited in overlong development sections.

Saturday night at Newport Harbor Art Museum, soprano Donna Robin, pianist Albert Dominguez and hornist Jeff von der Schmidt scarcely addressed this need. And the chilling ambiance of a garishly lit, ugly room, dominated by Mao Zedong and Andy Warhol, was no help for this Schubertiad sponsored by the Southwest Chamber Music Society.

The soprano provided some genuine aural pleasure--but scant suggestion of the feelings it was her responsibility to convey. Her small voice is secure, steady, true of pitch, with a lovely shimmer on top that acquires an edge when pressured for volume. But she doesn’t knit notes and phrases together with emotional conviction.

She read score throughout, even in the most familiar songs: “Heidenroslein,” “Nacht und Traume,” “Der Musensohn.” This and her naturally detached manner--index finger repositioning glasses on nose while singing--eliminated any real communication.

Robin and Schmidt were betrayed by the room in “Auf dem Strom.” Despite Schmidt’s attempt to modify his sound, it was simply too small a space for the horn’s range of vibration. Painful to the listener’s ear at certain pitches, the sound of the instrument tended to erase soprano and piano from the sonic texture.

Dominguez functioned efficiently if rather anonymously in the ensembles and as accompanist but was unable to assume primacy when tackling four Impromptus. In three from Opus 90 he dropped far too many notes, while glossing prosaically over substantial musical content. He managed better the less virtuosic A-flat Impromptu of Opus 142.

The one true “singer” of the evening, clarinetist Michael Grego, joined Robin and Dominguez for “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.” Grego spun phrases in an unflagging legato line, couched in sound that never rasped at any dynamic level. His superb prelude inspired Robin to her most persuasive work, echoing his phrases. She sang the slow middle section with considerable poise and control.