Easy Does It as Colorado Unit Plays 2

Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the series hosted by the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College, has never had trouble selling out the house on Super Bowl Sunday. It happened again Sunday afternoon--twice--at the Mediterranean-style Canfield-Moreno Estate high above the Silver Lake district.

The mansion’s rectangular living room--only partially restored but acoustically splendid, with just enough resonance--made a fine setting for the Colorado Quartet, which played two performances of the same program. One can remember, not too long ago, when this all-female group was considered a path-breaker; now it is a seasoned institution, with vehemence tempered by a polished, extremely well-balanced surface. First violinist Julie Rosenfeld remains the live wire in the mix, with second violinist Deborah Redding, violist Marka Gustavsson (the newest member), and cellist Diane Chaplin providing the tempering influences.

It’s a fascinating notion, if not necessarily true, that Schubert’s final chamber works sound as if they were written in the face of a looming death sentence; there’s a sense of desperation, a race against time, that especially drives their finales. Yet the Colorado seemed to have something else in mind for the Quartet No. 15. While the first two movements were played passionately, the Scherzo could have used more propulsion and the Finale unfolded at an easygoing lope, as if they chose not to rush over every precious triplet in the hope that Schubert’s ideas would never end.

The main course was prefaced by the sometimes bizarre humor of Haydn’s Quartet in F minor, Opus 55, No. 2, where the Colorado sailed expressively through the opening variations and observed, poker-faced, the weird silences that punctuate the second movement.