MUSIC REVIEW : Repertory and Performances Hinder Debussy Trio at Ford

Admittedly, real thrills may be a lot to expect from chamber music outdoors. Monday at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, in any case, the Debussy Trio left its evening at the comfortable level of undemanding pleasantry.

Some of the lack of excitement and tension could be attributed to repertory. The ensemble has aggressively sponsored new music for its rare combination of flute, viola and harp, but the results on display Monday made scant impact.

This concert was also more assertively and unflatteringly amplified than previous evenings at the Ford this season.

Most of the problem, though, lay with the performances. Flutist Angela Wiegand, violist Keith Greene and harpist Marcia Dickstein brought well-rehearsed skills to the music, but also a limited dynamic range, and little color.

Ian Krouse’s “Dos Canciones Insolitas” proved the most distinctive of the new music, greatly aided by the suitably sinuous and smoldering work of mezzo Suzanna Guzman. Krouse has long been inspired by the poetry of Lorca, and these cleanly structured, pseudo-Andalusian gems have the benefit of unforced simplicity.

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The ensemble’s other guest was weatherman Christopher Nance, who gave characterful voice to the narration of Luigi Zaninelli’s educational (at a primary level) and sentimental “Musical Fable.” Wiegand, Greene and Dickstein modestly enacted this gentle tale of ensemble togetherness, and presented its neoclassical riffs capably.

Conventional contemporary noodling was the substance of Andrew Frank’s “The Way You Hear It Is the Way You Sing It,” effective in its short coda but otherwise sadly lacking the rhythmic momentum described in Frank’s program note.

At the end of the program came mild post-modern excursions into ethnic sources. Roger Neill’s “Kumbosora” is a tuneful, undemonstrative “West African Rhapsody,” and Dennis Davenport’s “Celestial Harmony” (the encore) offers a melodic but almost inert Appalachian scene.

For earlier repertory, the Debussy Trio turned to arrangements of Telemann and Ravel. The playing never stumbled, but only in moments of the Ravel Sonatine did it lift the music beyond the notes.