MUSIC REVIEW : Pianist Is Remembered in an Upbeat Tribute : The Southwest Chamber Music Society dedicated its program on Thursday to founding member Albert Dominguez, who died of cancer earlier this month.

There was nothing funereal or downbeat about the Southwest Chamber Music Society concert Thursday at Chapman University, although the program was dedicated to pianist Albert Dominguez, one of the founding members of the group, who died March 11 at 48 of pancreatic cancer.

The challenging program, which was to have been repeated Friday at the Pasadena Library, included works by Mozart, Brahms and Milton Babbitt.

In his brief but useful introductory comments to Babbitt’s “Groupwise” for flute and piano quartet, artistic director Jeff von Schmidt (who usually plays horn but who served as the energetic conductor in this piece) remarked that the work was particularly helpful to the musicians during what is a trying period for them because it “has no gravity.”

By that he certainly did not mean that the work lacks seriousness, but rather that it is not ponderous or weighted down.

Indeed, in its clean, open textures and short, sometimes virtually pointillistic gestures, the work embraces airy space. It even suggests expanding but weightless volumes of exploding fireworks.

But it is not static. A steady pulse, plus jazz influences, both in rhythm and a sense of playful improvisation, inform the work.

Divided into 15 continuous sections (which Von der Schmidt helpfully demarcated for the audience using downbeats with both arms), the piece, lasting approximately 20 minutes, traverses various combinations of the five instruments, hence the title.

The composer’s principles of construction, however typically intricate, received rapt and expert attention from flutist Dorothy Stone, pianist Gloria Cheng, violinist Peter Marsh, violist Jan Karlin and cellist Roger Lebow.

After intermission, Cheng, Marsh, Karlin and Lebow offered a stylish, strong, at times eloquent performance of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A, Opus 26.

Cheng’s initial poised nobility of utterance did not prepare one for her strong expressivity later. Marsh, as usual, injected fervor and elegance into his playing. One only wished for stronger musical profiles from Karlin and Lebow.

The program opened with Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D, K. 285, which the musicians began somewhat impulsively and with edgy ensemble; but by the repeat of the exposition, they had settled into a buoyant and sunny account.

The adagio middle movement, with its limpid melodic line for flute and delicate pizzicato accompaniment, remains another example of Mozart’s adumbrating the Romantic movement and has yet to be exploited by Hollywood.

More good news: Salmon Recital Hall was sold out, and some people sat along the sides of the seating area. The bad news: Some of those people chattered incessantly, distracting the serious-minded audience.