Dance and Music Reviews : Southwest Society Opens 4th Season

In today’s conservative musical world of brand names and recycled repertory, the presenter with the courage to offer unhackneyed music is usually new to the game or about to lose it.

Not so the Southwest Chamber Music Society, which survives, and opened its fourth season Thursday night in Salmon Hall at Chapman College. Southwest, to call it by its first name, specializes in the unusual and neglected, and seems to draw an enthusiastic audience also friendly to discovery.

At the same time, the society’s players--a flexible ensemble of 11 members, plus guests--appear to operate several notches above the mainstream of ad-hoc, temporary groups often producing in this musical neighborhood: At its best, the organization makes music in a serious and polished way.

The performances given at Chapman on Thursday--and scheduled to be repeated Friday night in Pasadena--lived up to that standard.

Led by violinist Peter Marsh, the quintet playing Brahms’ Opus 111 and the United States premiere of Anthony Payne’s “Consort Music”--violinist Lawrence Sonderling, violists Jan Karlin and Robin Ross, and cellist Richard Treat--did so with passion, deep detailing and a projected sense of style.

There were areas of unfinished preparation in the wondrous G-major Quintet--some overplaying here, misgauging of balances there, momentary lapses of intonation. But they did not harm the overall sweep of the piece, a work of valedictory statements despite its heroic stance.

Payne’s haunting but active quarter-hour essay on introversion/extroversion turned out a strong contrast to Brahms’ less reserved musical oratory. Atonal in dialect, emotionally dichotomous “Consort Music” leaves the listener feeling spent but optimistic. Nothing seemed tentative.

This program began with piano. In memory of Leonard Bernstein, Albert Dominguez played “Five Anniversaries” (1954) with all its cherishable Americanisms intact: wit, directness, sentiment, sassiness and vulnerability.

Then, to open the program proper, Marsh and Dominguez gave a reading of Elgar’s Second Sonata that reminded us again of the grandeur of much of the British composer’s output. An elegant duo, Marsh-Dominguez produced a comprehensive and full-throated aural view of this handsome, deeply felt, aristocratic and sometimes self-mocking score. Why do we not hear it more often?