Disasters, Natural and Otherwise : 1995: The Year in Review : In O.C., the music was fine but dance was a risky propsition : SUSAN BLISS’ FAVORITE PERFORMANCES

In chronological order:

* The Cherubini String Quartet, Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Feb. 4. Violinists Christoph Poppen and Ulf Wallin, violist Hariolf Schlichtig and cellist Christoph Richter delivered sensual, spellbinding performances of three quartets by Beethoven.

* Southwest Chamber Music Society, Bertea Hall, Chapman University, June 16. Members of this group--on this occasion, the Southwest String Quartet, soprano Kathleen Roland and pianist Vicki Ray--continued their commitment to challenge, enlighten and entertain Orange County audiences with 20th-Century repertoire interspersed among heady readings of pieces from standard literature. Ernst Krenek’s “Zwei Zeitlieder” dominated through drama and effect.

* The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Irvine Barclay Theatre, May 9. Seven principal players of the Boston Symphony and their longtime collaborator, pianist Gilbert Kalish, brought a reminder of the lofty standards to which all chamber musicians aspire. Intimacy, unity of purpose, sensitivity to the score, technical precision and virtuosity distinguished a conservative roster of works.

* Stephen Prutsman, with the Pacific Symphony, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Aug. 5. The Norwalk-born pianist employed great subtlety and discerning intelligence in his performance of Mozart’s Concerto in C Minor, K. 491. The orchestra, particularly first-chair woodwinds, responded with crisply appointed empathy.

* Thomas Scurich with the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Dec. 16. Scurich, who enjoys a modest career in his home state of Ohio, but is practically unknown in Southern California, created a welcome stir as the evocative and technically impressive baritone soloist in Handel’s “Messiah.” Pacific Symphony assistant conductor Edward Cumming manned the podium.

SUSAN BLISS’ LEAST FAVORITE PERFORMANCES

In chronological order:

* Anonymous 4, Irvine Barclay Theatre, Feb. 6. Four learned performers--Susan Hellauer, Marsha Genensky, Johanna Rose and Ruth Cunningham--proved that the earthy, fanciful and adventure-chocked love poetry and vocal music from the Middle Ages could, in the right hands, be reduced to overrefined, characterless stylizations.

* South Coast Chorale, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Cal State Long Beach, Dec. 17. Despite the premiere of a pleasant-enough work by Libby Larsen, the choir’s holiday concert revolved around feel-good shtick and musical featherweights. True to incredible political correctness, all lyrics were translated into sign language, including the closing sing-along that culminated in “Jingle Bells,” barked in predetermined combinations of “woofs” and “arfs.”