MUSIC REVIEW : A Stunning Coast Debut of Wuorinen Sonata in Orange

ORANGE —  Members of the Southwest Chamber Music Society offered a tantalizing program of 19th- and 20th-Century works Thursday night at Salmon Recital Hall on the campus of Chapman College. Violinist Peter Marsh and pianist Gloria Cheng capped the evening with a stunning West Coast premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s Sonata for violin and piano.

Wuorinen introduced his work with acerbic wit and terse description. Apologizing for his robustness, he quipped: “When you confront a composer who has the rudeness to be alive, there tends to be a large gap between the music you know and what you are about to hear.” On this occasion, such fears proved groundless, for Marsh and Cheng revealed a tightly conceived, exciting monolith.

The single-movement sonata--about 20 minutes in duration and centered around the note “G”--builds from inward-looking, self-contained melodies to increasingly frantic and more closely related voices.

At the height of accelerating waves of activity and tension, Wuorinen has placed a sudden, jarring silence, which signals a retreat into a meditative abyss. The violin-piano duo, having been coached by the composer for several days before the concert, approached the piece with busy absorption and shrewd perception, urgently drawing their listeners into the mounting excitement.

Bartok’s “Out of Doors” for piano and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C minor flanked Wuorinen’s Sonata. Pianist Albert Dominguez brought authority and intelligence to Bartok’s percussive suite, deftly illuminating structural relationships among voices.

Only in the final “Chase” did musical logic take second place to devilish technical demands. Here, opportunities for astutely placed accent fell prey to hair-raising speed.

In marked contrast to the 20th-Century portion of the program, an ensemble consisting of violinist Marsh, violist Jan Karlin, cellist Richard Treat and pianist Dominguez placed little emphasis on the interrelationship of Brahms’ lines.

Instead, the four gloried unabashedly in the lush unfolding of harmonies, driven by emphatic rhythm.

Nominally working under the artistic direction of hornist Jeff von der Schmidt, the Southwest Chamber Music Society is completing its first year in residency at Chapman College.

The program will be repeated 8 p.m. today at the Newport Harbor Art Museum.