MUSIC REVIEWS : Southwest Chamber Group at Chapman

Music for strings predominated in the second Southwest Chamber Music Society program of the season Thursday at Bertea Hall at Chapman University in Orange.

The program included Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Paul Chihara’s “Redwood” for viola and percussion, and Schubert’s Quintet in C for Two Violins, Viola and Two Cellos, D. 956.

To open the program, violinists Peter Marsh and Sheryl Staples, violist Jan Karlin and cellist Roger Lebow made a persuasive case for the original scoring of the Adagio (from Barber’s Quartet for Strings, Opus 11) as opposed to the more familiar arrangement for string orchestra by Toscanini.

Marsh pulsed the melodic line in delicate, two-note phrases without detracting from its unfolding in long-breathed curves and arches.

Each of his colleagues found opportunities to contribute personal expression and enveloping textures, whether in moments of pale, touching intimacy or, of course, at the soaringly intense climax.

Karlin and percussionist Deborah Schwartz next confidently addressed Chihara’s sparse 11-minute “Redwood,” composed in 1971, according to the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. (The program said 1967.)

Presiding over an array of timpani, tenor drums, temple blocks, suspended cymbals and wooden wind chimes, Schwartz dexterously evoked a range of delicate or arresting colors. Karlin played with poise, security and powerful flamboyance, as needed.

After intermission, cellist Paul Kellett joined the previous quartet players for a strong but problematic performance of Schubert’s monumental Quintet in C.

For all the vigor and commitment and, at times, poignancy, the ensemble consisted of uneven, ruggedly distinct voices, capable of scrubby playing and pitch problems and not always able to project security of direction.

Violinist Marsh and cellist Lebow showed the most empathetic and mirrored phrasing, which was not surprising in light of the fact that they had both been members of the Philadelphia String Quartet in the early 1980s.

Others made strong contributions, but the overall impression remained that, understandably (this is only the society’s fifth season), they simply have not been playing together long enough to scale the heights of this music.