MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : KAMEI, THOMAS, HARRIS-HEGGIE

An ad-hoc trio made up of violinist Yukiko Kamei, violist Milton Thomas and pianist Johana Harris-Heggie gave a satisfying, if not always focused, performance, Friday night in Hancock Auditorium at USC. The fact that the players never performed together as a threesome was one disappointment in this evening.

Kamei and Thomas, who serve on the faculties of UCLA and USC, respectively, are scheduled for a joint recital in New York City next month, at which time they will give the world premiere of a work by Paul Chihara; presumably, this appearance was a warm-up for that one. As far as it went, this set of performances surveyed the outward contrasts and delivered the musical content of works by Ingolf Dahl, Schubert, Dimitry Shostakovich and Mozart.

In Schubert’s otherworldly Fantasy in C, Opus 159, Kamei and Harris-Heggie flew over the myriad difficulties presented by the composer without probing all of the depths of the piece. One of the reasons they failed to project was the placement of the piano top: Muffled, distant sounds always emanate from a closed lid.

More successful in dramatic projection was the touching reading Thomas and Harris-Heggie brought to Shostakovich’s final chamber-music composition, the Sonata for viola and piano of 1975. A heart-breaking resignation pervades this work, and the two players gave voice to its depth of feeling.

Crafty and challenging duos for violin and viola by Dahl and Mozart--the Little Canonic Suite (1970) and the Duo in B-flat, K. 424--completed the program in handsome and efficient performances by Kamei and Thomas.