Letting Three-dom Ring : Music: The artists in the piano trio Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson also enjoy solo careers. They’ll be at the Irvine Barclay tonight.

Can’t you just hear it? “Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson. May I help you?”

But Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson isn’t a law firm. It’s a piano trio, appearing, in fact, tonight at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in a concert sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society and Laguna Chamber Music Society. The program includes trios by Haydn (No. 18 in A), Mendelssohn (No. 1 in D Minor) and Schubert (No. 2 in E-flat).

“It is a huge name,” admitted pianist Joseph Kalichstein, reached by phone at his home in Maplewood, N.J. “The piano-trio format, unlike the string quartet, is really three individual voices. . . . We certainly did not invent the tradition of using three names. Actually, the Beaux Arts Trio went against tradition.”

Were there a Guinness record for longest piano trio name, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson would win handily today. Historically, though, they’d play second (or even third) fiddle to such ensembles from the past as Heifetz-Piatigorsky-Rubinstein and Fischer-Schneiderhan-Mainardi. Yet background materials show little compassion for writers, blaring, DO NOT ABBREVIATE TO “KLR.”

With a chuckle, Kalichstein cited a trio at the other end of the spectrum: “I remember when Emanuel Ax started playing in his trio (with violinist Young-Uck Kim and cellist Yo-Yo Ma), he pointed out that the Ax-Kim-Ma Trio had a shorter name than he did alone.”

Kalichstein was born in Israel, violinist Jaime Laredo in Bolivia, and cellist Sharon Robinson in Houston. Kalichstein began playing chamber music with Laredo and Robinson, who are husband and wife, 18 years ago. The ensemble made its official debut at the White House at the inauguration of President Carter. The ensemble was formed after hastily mounted performances of Dvorak’s piano quintet and piano quartet: Kalichstein, who had played the quintet but never seen the quartet, was a last-minute replacement at Laredo’s behest; the two had played together once before.

“In the end, we all remarked how easy the performance was,” Kalichstein recalled. “We seemed to phrase together, breathe together, sing together. Sharon and Jaime came to me and said, ‘Maybe we should play together.’

“Most of the time with chamber concerts you’re thrown together like that, you always wish you had two more rehearsals to scream at each other. We basically wanted to play concerts that were properly rehearsed.”

All three musicians enjoy successful solo careers both on the concert stage and in the recording studio. Together they’ve made half a dozen recordings, including a recently released Vox Box that includes the three Brahms Piano Trios, both Mendelssohn trios and Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio.

Kalichstein addressed the pros and cons of playing in a full-time chamber ensemble, such as the Beaux Arts Trio, versus juggling solo and chamber careers.

“I must say, I don’t find any cons in our case,” he said. “We are lucky enough to do both. If we played 100 concerts a year, maybe it would get on our nerves. Maybe not. As it is, we only do 35 concerts a year, and without sounding coy, we actually enjoy seeing each other each time. There’s always a sense of rejuvenation.

“Only yesterday we came back to a piece we hadn’t played for a long time, and all of a sudden it was in a faster tempo. We all sat up and took notice and delighted in the fact that it had continued to live when we were away from it.”

Each year the trio tours Europe. Next season they’ve scheduled more than the usual number of concerts, almost 50; Japanese and Australian tours alone account for 30 concerts. So who enjoys greater notoriety these days, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson the trio, or Kalichstein, Laredo, Robinson the individuals?

“It could very well be the trio,” he said. “I certainly cannot complain if it’s one or the other. I’m known as a solo pianist, so I don’t have an identity crisis. I’d played for a good 15 years professionally before we formed this trio, so many conductors, orchestras and audiences know me as such. There are also new audiences that know me only in a trio.

“I hope people know me as someone with two different hats. I want to have that balance. In fact, that is my ideal.”

* The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio plays music by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schubert tonight at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, UC Irvine. Sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society and the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society. $12.50-$25. (714) 854-4646.