Music Reviews : Musica Viva at Schoenberg Institute

With a refreshingly intelligent program of four challenging works, the ensemble Boston Musica Viva prevailed in an evening of chamber music Wednesday at the Schoenberg Institute at USC.

The 21-year-old septet, conducted by founder Richard Pittman and made up of musicians mostly with ties to the New England Conservatory, demonstrates a remarkable togetherness along with an honest, unpretentious approach.

Its performance of Webern’s 1923 arrangement of Schoenberg’s masterful Chamber Symphony--deliberately scored for the same five instruments in Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”--especially dazzled, shedding authoritative light on the complex post-Romantic music. Pittman gently kept the reduced forces in line, expertly managing the many tempo changes and busy textures with convincing insight.

The West Coast premiere of Mario Davidovsky’s “Biblical Songs” also utilized the “Pierrot Lunaire” ensemble, though with markedly fewer notes--a simplicity that proved more routine than economical. Soprano Christine Schadeberg pleasantly sang the four Old Testament texts, though her part contains little variety in dynamics and a limited range.

The entire ensemble gathered handsomely for a pair of recent three-movement works: Olly Wilson’s “A City Called Heaven” (1988) based on a spiritual, and John Thow’s spooky “All Hallows” (1982).

Wilson’s inventive rhythms and riffs always fascinate with their mix of blues, African elements and modern counterpoint, resulting in music that is both accessibly visceral and superbly organized. Thow’s opus deftly manages a palette of luscious and eerie atonal textures, especially the frenetic repetitive patterns in the “Capriccio” movement.