Music : Sibelius Academy Quartet Opens Year

Some societies may be crumbling and the world teetering on the brink of war, but chamber music goes on. Or so it seems, whenever one checks in on the fortunes of the Da Camera Society, the burgeoning Mount St. Mary’s College-sponsored series that presents concerts all over the countryside, but most often at its own downtown campus.

A new year opened for the series, Friday night, when the Doheny Soirees hosted the local debut performance by the Sibelius Academy Quartet. The ensemble from Helsinki--where its members are on the faculty of the academy named for Finland’s most famous composer--gave a polished and admirable performance of works by Haydn, Shostakovich and Sibelius.

Admirable in most senses, that is. In terms of sound-blend, mechanical achievement, ensemble values and single-mindedness, these players meet a high international standard of accomplishment.

If none of these three readings--Haydn’s Quartet in G, Opus 76, No. 1, the Seventh Quartet by Shostakovich, or Sibelius’ Opus 56--seemed to produce a genuine level of self-definition, that may reflect this particular occasion, or it may indicate more tellingly the general aura of standoffishness projected by the ensemble.

To be sure, the four musicians--violinists Seppo Tukiainen and Erkki Kantola, violist Veikko Kosonen and cellist Arto Noras--touched all musical bases in the D-minor Quartet of their countryman. This performance exhibited abundant dynamic contrasts, cherishable detailing and a full palette of technical devices.

Yet it did not delve deeply into the emotional life of the work, which demands even more mood-differentiations between movements, even between sections.

Despite measurable indications to the contrary, the group’s playing of Shostakovich’s brave Seventh Quartet also lacked the complete range of emotional shifts possible in its brief but touching length.

In this ensemble’s otherwise strong reading, sobriety became a mask instead of a window into the kaleidoscopic humors of Haydn’s late, G-major quartet. Still, as far as it went, one had to admire it.