Passionate Brahms From Arden Trio

In the right hands, Brahms’ young-old Piano Trio in B--its youthful exuberance refocused but unsuppressed by mature revision--is as irresistible a work as any in the repertory. Certainly it seemed so Sunday afternoon, as the veteran Arden Trio played it with sweeping vitality for the first audience of the ‘96-97 Chamber Music in Historic Sites season.

The site this time was the Guasti Villa, a mid-city Mediterranean-style mansion once owned by Busby Berkeley and now the home of Peace Theological Seminary. The very direct acoustic of its ornate entry hall plays to the strength of a big-sound ensemble like the Arden, which delivered a richly colored, emotionally authentic Brahms interpretation with remarkable point and passion.

Violinist Suzanne Ornstein and cellist Clay Ruede proved well-matched in tone yet thoroughly individual in temperament, and pianist Thomas Schmidt was as compelling and accurate in heroic thunder as in fainting filigree. Immaculate ensemble could be taken for granted, allowing them to explore nuances as inspiration led them.

The three find an almost Brahmsian level of expansive yearning and drama in Haydn’s Trio in C, Hob. XV:27, as Ornstein explained introducing the work. Capitalizing on musical evidence in the score, they made an intellectually interesting and sonically ingratiating case for that point of view, without banishing all stylistic doubts. Their Haydn dances with balance and wit, but he also stamps and sighs with uncommon heat and luxuriance.

As a lengthy encore-cum-epilogue to the intermission-less program, they offered a genial jaunt through the rambling finale of Schubert’s Trio in B-flat, D. 898. Coarser in detail than the glories that had gone before and lacking clear direction, it made a less rewarding transition back to the mundane world than the trio obviously expected it would.