MUSIC REVIEW : Debussy Trio Performs in Laguna Beach

The Debussy Trio saved its best for last Sunday night at the fourth concert of the 1990-91 Laguna Chamber Music Society series.

In the second half of the program, at Artists’ Theatre at Laguna Beach High School, harpist Marcia Dickstein, flutist Angela Schmidt and violist Keith Greene introduced Vincent Mendoza’s “Trio Music 5/90” and closed with Carlos Salzedo’s shimmering arrangement of Ravel’s Sonatine.

According to brief notes quoting Mendoza, the composer’s goal in this trio was to “introduce the musicians to jazz elements gradually over a four-movement classical structure.” The work becomes progressively freer--moving from an unpretentious, mildly dissonant ragtime and a somber song form to through-composed movements with elements of improvisation and rhythmic complexities.

The trio juggles quiet absorption with playful interludes. On this occasion--despite a lack of leadership that lent particularly uncertain voicing to the dark Adagio--it held interest with ease, adding a welcome newcomer to the limited repertory for this combination.

Salzedo’s arrangement of the Sonatine loses some of the power of the original piano version but compensates by augmenting its grace. The players approached the composition with subtle insistence, bolstered by Schmidt’s dynamic shading and Dickstein’s impressively secure support.

During the first half of the menu, the trio served pleasant wisps, light and sweet as cotton candy and equally insubstantial. Not that all the music chosen lacked substance--certainly the Finale of Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola and harp can entice the right protagonists to heady flights.

Here, however, flutist Schmidt pitted a small tone and restricted dynamic palette against her cohorts’ edgy-sounding back-drop. And while the three hinted at the haunting possibilities of the Interlude through sensitive ephemeralities, the second movement suffered from a lack of intensity.

The remainder of the program--”Concerts Royaux,” Dances from the “Troisieme Concert” by Couperin, and “Deux Interludes” by Ibert--offered quiet pleasantries but little inspiration. The three instrumentalists sauntered through it all with aimless elegance.