MUSIC REVIEW : Schubertian Concert at Irvine Barclay : The chamber group An die Musik brought Schubert’s lyricism to the new theater.

During Schubert’s life, his popularity flourished only among a small group of devotees. Sunday night, when the chamber ensemble An die Musik--named for Schubert’s song of the same title--played before an audience that reportedly filled a mere 150 of the 756 seats in the new Irvine Barclay Theatre, patrons joined a similarly select group.

An die Musik--violinist Richard Rood, violist Richard Brice, cellist Daniel Rothmuller, oboist Gerard Reuter and pianist Constance Emmerich--offered a program sprinkled with accessible contemporary works by Lee Hoiby, Arnold Cooke and Benjamin Britten.

Hoiby’s “Overture: To a Song,” based on the lied “An Die Musik,” and intended as a signature work for the group, began the evening with quirky playfulness illuminated by flashes of Schubertian melody.

The overture emerged cleanly and well-directed but balanced as if it had been written for quartet with piano accompaniment.

Not that the piano played a simple role in the piece. On the contrary, Emmerich seemed to be immersed in challenging acrobatics. But, at least to a listener near the front of the hall, much of the sound of all of the instruments was absorbed by the hall.

Placed close to the heavy drapery that formed a backdrop, the piano suffered mightily.

Cooke’s Quartet for oboe and strings fared better from the same vantage point, although here, too, the auditorium swallowed some of the contrast between tension and relaxation.

Nevertheless, Reuter led the field with moving, long-lined oboe solos and flawless intonation. His companions responded sensitively during agitated buildups, tentative imitative interludes and busy staccato sessions.

From a seat farther back in the theater, the waves of starts and stops, climaxes and calms in Britten’s “Phantasy Quartet” for oboe and strings reached out with sharper teeth.

Similarly, an aggressive opening to Mozart’s Quartet for piano and strings in E-flat carried a potent bite. Overall, however--true to their chosen muse--the four chose to emphasize the more melodic aspects of the classical work, passing over some touching dissonances in favor of grace and refinement.

Their efforts resulted in a simple, unaffected reading in soft-edged tones.