Southwest Music Society Celebrates Its Roots

Not so long ago, or so it seems, the Southwest Chamber Music Society was an eager collective of some of the area’s smartest and hottest young musicians, always aspiring but often overextended. In its 10th season, the intelligence and skill remain, but now the society has a subscription home in three venues and a history worth celebrating. Thursday at the Museum of Tolerance, Southwest re-created its inaugural offering with a concert that also paid tribute to its founding pianist, Albert Dominguez, who died in 1992.

Other instrumental founders--violist Jan Karlin, flutist Dorothy Stone, hornist Jeff von der Schmidt--are still very much present, but Thursday was principally a grand night for singing. At the center was Benjamin Britten’s “The Heart of the Matter,” a sequence of readings and songs from Edith Sitwell’s poetry--Southwest gave the work its U.S. premiere. Tenor Jonathan Mack tracked every feint of the Britten line with supple and compelling clarity. Von der Schmidt couldn’t match that assurance in his ascending fanfares, and his rhythmic integration with the incisive work of pianist Vicki Ray was occasionally suspect, but the imagery and urgency of the texts came through undiminished.

Southwest has also nurtured and cherished California composers such as Anthony Vazzana, whose colorful setting of Jake Zeitlin’s “Whispers and Chants” was the society’s first commission. Soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson was the soloist, projecting its nocturnal glimmerings and self-conscious passions with authority.

Debussy is a good sonic bookend for “Whispers and Chants,” but his Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp proved a minefield of intonation lapses from Karlin and Stone, despite the characterful and pointed playing of harpist Marcia Dickstein.

* This program repeats tonight at 8 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd., $20. (800) 726-7147.