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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW Lively Newcomers November 22, 2002
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By Jeanette Yu
The New Pacific Trio's debut recital at San Francisco's Old First Church was shrewdly balanced between familiar and rare pieces, and between the
"serious" and the borderline-crossover. The program highlighted the
newly-formed trio's considerable range, but it was the group's infectious
musical vivacity that proved most memorable.
The trio gave an impressive account of Brahms' Trio in C major, op. 87.
Pianist Sonia Leong, violinist Teresa Ling, and cellist Nina Flyer combined
vitality, passion, and dexterity, and the strength of their ensemble propelled
the performance into pleasurable immediacy. In particular, the hemiolas and
syncopations were superbly sprung, while the strings lavished rich and supple
tone on the scherzo trio. Though the strings were at times too prominent and
the piano surprisingly obscured, the finale, taken at a breakneck speed but
nimbly navigated nonetheless, brought the piece to a dazzling close.
The program also included Debussy's rarely-performed Trio in G. Written in
1880, when the composer was just 18, the piece naturally lacks the mastery of
his mature works. But it offers glimpses of Debussy's emerging
brilliance, and the players seized on them. The work's decorative musical
elements — a heavy reliance on pedal notes, halting and segregated musical
phrases, and crepuscular textures — were imbued with fantasy, contemplation,
and nostalgia. Leong's sensitive and accomplished touch, Flyer's rich tone,
and Ling's more delicate artistry did well by the music's youthful bloom.
The Debussy was followed by a lively rendition of Paul Schoenfield's "Café Music," which has lately been popular on concert bills. The work was introduced by Ling, who explained that it comprises blues, ragtime, and jazz influences. She noted that Schoenfield intended the work to "barely make it onto a serious concert program," and it did indeed steer a precarious course between parody and homage. In comparison to the Debussy and Brahms, the spiky rhythms of "Café Music" were given much freer rein. But the piece somewhat missed its mark. Although the trio's energetic performance was invigorating after the naive dreaminess of the Debussy, Schoenfield's boundary-straddling exercise didn't quite work. While it is clearly fun to play and easy to listen to, it also reveals an awkward struggle between serious music-making and pastiche. Even the flashy smiles on the performers' faces disappeared during the second and third movements, as their focused gazes mirrored an obvious musical determination. My reservations weren't shared by the audience, though, which quite literally roared its approval. All in all, it was an impressive debut, displaying the Trio's command of a wide variety of musical idioms; the effervescent, lyrical Debussy contrasted nicely with the glitzy fusion of the Schoenfield, while the Brahms crowned the evening with delight.
(Jeanette Yu is a cellist and a recent graduate of UC Berkeley.)
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New Pacific Trio