MUSIC REVIEW : Chamber Trio Spurs Radiant Performance

Sometimes, something really clicks in an ad hoc chamber music group. Throughout much of Thursday night’s concert from the Southwest Chamber Music Society, at Chapman University’s Salmon Recital Hall, one could feel it happening, a sense of going beyond the notes in the printed score.

The group that made this effect was pianist Albert Dominguez, violinist Sheryl Staples and cellist Paul Kellett. From the opening moments of Haydn’s Trio in F-sharp minor, the playing was full of pointed attacks, full-blooded expression, variety in balance and nuance.

Dvorak’s Trio No. 3 in F minor piled on the expression with even more unfeigned gusto, building to passages of determined vehemence in the second and fourth movements. Staples indulged in lots of sliding portamentos, Kellett was warm and fervent, and while it was difficult to hear Dominguez’s left hand in this resonant room, he provided plenty of effective Romantic swells. Though some might have wondered where Dvorak’s “grazioso” went in the second movement, and the playing wasn’t the neatest imaginable, it didn’t matter that much, given a performance of this much life.

As for the 20th Century, the sole entry there was something called “Music for Horn and Piano” by Thea Musgrave. The piece amounts to a dry, overlong, pulseless recitative, where the horn is asked to make all kinds of polite and impolite noises, jabbing at the nerves.

One could appreciate the skill of horn soloist Jeff von der Schmidt in conjuring the vast panorama of effects with the use of the right hand, as well as Dominguez’s attempts to carry on a musical dialogue. As a stunt, the piece made sense, but not as a musical experience.

The program was scheduled to be repeated Friday at Wright Auditorium in Pasadena.