POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Sweet Honey Warms Crowd : LOS ANGELES FESTIVAL: “HOME, PLACE and MEMORY” <i> A city-wide arts fest.</i>

Sweet Honey in the Rock is a group capable of delivering all the soothing sweetness that its name implies. But should an audience be slow to respond--as was initially the case on Friday at the Wadsworth Theater--founding member Bernice Johnson Reagon can pulverize a crowd with a boulder-sized attitude.

Widely recognized as America’s premier female a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey makes demands upon its fans. The Washington-based quintet was founded 20 years ago on the premise that social activism and awareness can be galvanized most powerfully via music.

Armed with a repertoire that incorporates forms of African-American music ranging from spirituals and work songs to reggae and rap, Sweet Honey--which is performing in several venues locally as part of the 1993 Los Angeles Festival--never stinted on the passion Friday.

Even when performing a hymn you’d heard hundreds of times before, it would offer a version so stunningly beautiful and moving that the song would feel brand new. That was the case with its rendition of Mahalia Jackson’s “In the Upper Room.” The interplay of Aisha Kahlil’s achingly sweet soprano with Ysaye Maria Barnwell’s deep, earthy vocal punctuation was only one of the evening’s emotional highlights.

Midway through the group’s performance, the audience’s self-conscious chill had thawed. It would have been hard to remain unmoved by Reagon’s unrestrained soul-shout on “Sometimes,” an ode to uncommitted men and the transitory pleasures of romance.

By the time it scatted its way through Donny Hathaway’s “Tryin’ Times,” a song written years ago that aptly describes strife-filled Los Angeles in the ‘90s, Sweet Honey’s ability to completely win over and enthrall even the toughest of audiences had been reaffirmed.