Music and Dance Reviews : Falla Trio at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium

Though it can do its namesake proud, the Falla Trio does not rely heavily on traditional Iberiana. Saturday evening, the locally based guitar ensemble put an emphasis on free-wheeling virtuosity in an eclectic program at Beckman Auditorium, Caltech.

Terry Graves, Dusan Bogdanovic and Kenton Youngstrom warmed up to their material slowly, begining with a hectic dance from Falla’s “Vida Breve,” and continuing with scattered ensemble and stylistic neglect in Youngstrom’s arrangement of Mozart’s Quintet, K. 406. Prolonged and unfruitful bouts of tuning, and charmless amplification that put the sound high on the walls to either side of the players did not make it any easier to settle into this recital.

Youngstrom’s deft, brash arrangement of a suite from Bernstein’s “West Side Story” brought the players together in a limber yet carefully modulated effort. In his remarkable Monk Suite--more transcription than arrangement--the three managed marvelously to echo recorded solos and phrasings while creating the impression of spontaneous improvisation.

Though in clearly articulated sections, Bogdanovic’s Trio sounded rather aimless in its first West Coast performance. The composer experimented ingratiatingly with timbre and rhythm, providing gamelan-inspired frames for improvisation which the performers never connected meaningfully.

Suites from Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” and Falla’s “Sombrero de Tres Picos,” in crisp, focused accounts, completed the program.