MUSIC REVIEW : Taiwan Piano Trio Plays in List-Glenn Series

If the success of a performance were to be measured by audience reaction alone, the Taiwan Piano Trio, performing as a part of the series at the List-Glenn Institute for Piano and Strings at Cal State L.A., would have to receive the highest rating.

Though only about a quarter of the seats in the school’s theater were filled, the genuine enthusiasm exhibited by the predominantly student audience more than compensated for the numerical deficit Monday evening.

There was certainly much justification for that enthusiasm. The 3-year-old ensemble, whose members teach at, among other places, the National Institute of the Arts in Taiwan, played with uncommon sensitivity and rhythmic unity. Melodic lines could be heard clearly and balances were kept in check.

But problems did arise.

Though cellist Wang-Ling Sun played with considerable expressivity, she never succeeded in producing a truly full sound; her tone varied from foggy to harsh. And not infrequently she encountered some difficulty in maintaining accurate intonation, as did, on occasion, violinist Cheng-Tu Su.

On the other hand, Su showed more confidence as a player, his bow control sure and his sound brilliant. Both deserve praise for the subtlety and drama they brought to Tchaikovsky’s Trio.

It was pianist Mei-Ling Wang, though, who most impressed. Her solid technique (a rare wrong note aside), poise and poetic insight helped make the ensemble’s reading of the Tchaikovsky a memorable one. Moreover, in Beethoven’s Trio in D, Opus 70, No. 1, Wang demonstrated considerable feeling, while her colleagues gave a rather objective account of the work.

All three seemed to warm up to Deh-Ho Lai’s Piano Trio (“Spring Stream”), heard here in its first U. S. performance. The composition’s sonorities recall that great body of American music of the neoclassic 1940s--rising fourths, mild dissonances and lively rhythms abound; the Taiwan composer even included a fugue as the second movement.

But if the 1981 score traverses old terrain, it does so effectively; in its 14 minutes the music remains earnest, vital and fresh-sounding. The three rendered the work with alertness and vigor, and the evening’s cleanest performance.