Southwest Chamber Plays Early Carter

Elliott Carter. The mere mention of the name strikes dread into the ears of some listeners, complete, enthusiastic admiration into others. Probably no other living composer can boast such a disparate range of reaction, with very little in between.

Dreaders and admirers alike could come together for the latest of several recent local Carter tributes, put on Saturday at Pasadena Presbyterian Church (repeated Sunday at Chapman University in Orange) by the Southwest Chamber Music Society. That’s because the tribute concentrated solely on the early, relatively approachable works of the 85-year-old composer, who was in attendance.

Not that the First String Quartet (1951) is an easy thing, but it is when compared with some of the later music. As the initial step on the composer’s road to aggressive complexity, this quartet retains an immediacy of impact that the later work doesn’t always have.

The Southwest String Quartet--Peter Marsh and Annie Chalex, violins, Jan Karlin, viola, Roger Lebow, cello--exposed its many layers clearly and brought it to dramatic heights convincingly.

Earlier, soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and pianist Leonard Stein had offered Carter songs from 1943: “Three Poems of Robert Frost,” “Voyage” and “A Warble for Lilac Time,” all written in an American neo-classical vein. Though Bryn-Julson was not in her best voice, she and Stein communicated this rugged, rhapsodic music with assurance.