Violinist No Match for Group

Violinist Linda Case, one of the contenders for the position of concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony, joined pianist John Novacek and principal players of the orchestra Friday as part of the 1996 chamber music series at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art.

Case brought an obvious intelligence to her ensemble playing, with faithful dovetailing and rhythmic anchoring. Nevertheless, she proved the weak link in her collaborations here.

Employing a thin, wavering tone--that changed color only to become more or less strident--Case’s part seemed anemic in contrast to the musical extroversion of cellist Timothy Landauer and of Novacek in Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 2, in C.

Still, the three combined with enough unanimity to create imploring washes of dark harmonies and reasonably involving drama.

Harpist Mindy Ball partnered Case in Saint-Saens’ Fantasie in A. Ball provided unflappable groundwork for Case’s shaky solo which--racked as it was by a nervous-sounding vibrato and by overly abrupt and weak phrase endings--turned the improvisatory quality of the piece into flightiness and its virtuosity into studiousness.

The gem of the evening came from clarinetist James Kanter, Landauer and Novacek, who offered elegance, power and bucolic amiability, during their performance of Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat, Opus 11, and who demonstrated the kind of comfortable single-mindedness one might expect from familiar association.

The program was repeated Saturday in Laguna Beach and again Sunday at Bowers.