MUSIC REVIEW : Seal Beach Festival Ends in a Minor Key

For the final concert of the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival on Thursday, the Pacific Trio showed more adventure in its programming than in its playing in minor-key works by Haydn, Smetana and Mendelssohn.

Lack of excitement, however, did not preclude musical satisfaction for the McGaugh School Auditorium audience.

Because they communicated each work’s individual characteristics, as opposed to imposing one style on all, violinist Endre Balogh, cellist John Walz and pianist Edith Orloff made the evening a rewarding exploration of the composers’ personalities.

Haydn’s E-minor Trio, Hob. XV, No. 12, for example, though it carries an early number, was composed in the late 1780s preceding the composer’s retirement from 30 years of service to his patron, Prince Esterhazy, a circumstance that may have contributed to the air of melancholy with which the first two movements are suffused. Haydn’s astute professionalism, however, clearly explains the upbeat spirits and jokes of the Presto finale.

Smetana’s shyly intimate G-minor Trio, Opus 15, which followed--written in 1855 shortly after the death of the composer’s 5-year-old daughter--is marked by emotionally moving manic-depressive mood shifts.

Mendelssohn’s well-known Trio, Opus 49 poses no such problems, its D-minor key more a technical convenience--lots of open strings for the violin and cello--than an indication of the composer’s state of mind.

Written when Mendelssohn was 30 and had much of his best work behind him, its abundant lyricism and dazzling virtuosity nevertheless rarely fail to leave an audience pleased.

Emphasizing seamless ensemble and careful elegance, the Pacific Trio found and delivered more substance in the first half. The Smetana especially benefited from the Trio’s delineation of its kinship with the ambiguous chamber music of Leos Janacek rather than with that of the straight-ahead Dvorak, the Czech composer to whom Smetana is usually compared.

In the Mendelssohn, however, care turned too often into caution. The resulting sober exhilaration brought the audience to its feet, which was good, but missed much of the excitement that comes from risk, which was disappointing.