MUSIC REVIEW : Trio Sonnerie’s Real Treat Is Its Violinist

When San Diego Trust & Savings Bank opened its downtown office Sunday afternoon, a casual passer-by might have concluded that the local institution was attempting to deflate the old myth of “bankers’ hours.” For aficionados of early music, however, something rarer than Sunday banking was afoot: In the stately old bank lobby, a concert of 17th-Century music was performed on period instruments by Trio Sonnerie.

Cleared of the customary bronze and glass writing tables, the high-ceilinged, marble-lined banking hall, which is the splendid public portion of William Templeton Johnson’s 1928 Romanesque Revival landmark, accommodated an audience of just under 200. Its acoustical properties proved to be a mixed blessing, however, favoring the violin’s brilliant highs but absorbing the lower frequencies of the other instruments.

The London-based ensemble’s striking program of French and Italian Baroque music was the second offering this season by Silver Gate Concerts, a local series of chamber music performances in historic sites.

Minutes into the group’s first Corelli sonata--they played three sonatas from his Opus 5--it became clear that Trio Sonnerie is a showcase for virtuoso violinist Monica Huggett. Although Mitzi Meyerson, on harpsichord, and Sarah Cunningham, on viola da gamba, exhibited stylish security on their instruments, Huggett was the unquestioned star.

If her rapid, short-stroke bowing technique easily subdued the challenges of Corelli’s dense passage work, Huggett’s primary virtue was her canny, asymmetrical phrasing and inflection that unleashed these sonatas’ dramatic power.

Hearing her perform this music could spoil any listener accustomed to the perfunctory iterations of “sewing machine” Baroque. Her sympathy for the mannered fluctuations in Giovanni Fontana’s Second Violin Sonata underscored her insights into this unusual 17th-Century repertory.

In her only solo turn, Cunningham discovered the exuberant fantasy in Marin Marais’ “Le Labyrinthe” for viola da gamba and harpsichord. She was clearly more fluent on the gamba than she was on the Baroque cello she played in the Corelli sonatas. Tuning problems with a borrowed harpsichord prevented Meyerson from performing several scheduled solos.

Two programming choices made Saturday evening’s concert by the La Jolla Civic University Orchestra notable. Music Director Thomas Nee opened the program with Joji Yuasa’s tone poem “Scenes from Basho,” and violinist Frank Almond Jr. soloed in Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto.

Almond, one of two American laureates in the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition, displayed admirable technical prowess and a sure grasp of Prokofiev’s style, a unique amalgam of primitive expression with formal sophistication. While the youthful San Diegan exquisitely rendered the work’s soft cantilenas, especially those in the highest register, his angular ostinatos lacked bold definition.

Almond does not possess a large sound, although it is well-focused, so the orchestra threatened to overpower him at times. His intonation is sure, however, and his agility in the fastest sections could not be faulted. Nee coaxed a capable accompaniment from his orchestra, although coordination with the soloist was rocky.

Yuasa’s Impressionistic three-movement essay, scored for large orchestra, piano and an impressive percussion battery, was originally written for a West German orchestra in 1980. Since each movement is based on a haiku, Yuasa chose delicate, suspended orchestral textures. (Matsua Basho of the work’s title was a 17th-Century Japanese haiku master.) While overall movement tended to the static, the quiet tonal landscape was dotted with percussive explosions.

The unique voice and inventive orchestration of Nee, who is a member of the university’s music faculty, deserves a wider hearing. He concluded the concert with a valiant stab at Mahler’s First Symphony, a challenge for even the most seasoned professional orchestra.