MUSIC REVIEW : Pacific Trio Exudes Brio, Eloquence

Unlike the chronically feuding Balkan peoples, the Czechs and Slovaks have been able to channel much of their suppressed nationalism into the non-lethal vehicle of classical music.

Sunday evening at the Athenaeum, the Pacific Trio devoted its considerable talent to a program of Czech music to open the La Jolla arts library’s Sunday evening chamber series. Given the ensemble’s passionate performing mode and the comfortable intimacy of the Athenaeum, this Czech excursion proved to be a heady musical journey.

The Los Angeles-based trio, made up of pianist Edith Orloff, violinist Endre Balogh and cellist John Walz, opened with a rousing, splendidly crafted interpretation of Dvorak’s F Minor Trio, Op. 65. After intermission, the ensemble offered Bohuslav Martinu’s Trio in D Minor and Smetana’s G Minor Trio, Op.15. In a way, the whole Czech story unfolded in the Dvorak Trio, a complex drama of intense personal angst juxtaposed with simmering national passions. The Martinu and Smetana works served as thoughtful, albeit slightly redundant synopses, of the same saga.

Within a few measures of the Dvorak Trio’s opening movement, the identity of the Pacific Trio came into full focus. The ensemble, which has worked together since 1980, fused three intense, highly motivated musical personalities without diluting the unique individual character of each. Orloff’s articulate, effervescent pianism charged every fast movement, in spite of the Athenaeum’s recalcitrant, uncommonly dull Steinway. In another mood, Orloff made the graceful second movement of the Dvorak dance with balletic grace.

Walz’s round, dark cello voice subtly undergirded and propelled the group, yet it blossomed forth with a rich patina when given the spotlight, especially in Dvorak’s soulful Poco Adagio movement. (Walz is scheduled to appear as a soloist with the San Diego Symphony next month.) Balogh projected a suitably aristocratic line, but without Walz’s generous flexibility and warmth.

Despite its minor key, the Martinu Trio proved a cheerful enough essay. The Pacific Trio bestowed a certain nobility on this rather plebeian opus, overriding its stylistic eclecticism with high-minded vigor. The ensemble turned the richly textured Smetana Trio into an eloquent benediction.