Veterans Have Made a Name for Themselves

The name Paris Piano Trio may be unfamiliar, but the ensemble, which makes its California debut Thursday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, is a venerable and well-respected one.

The players are known in Europe simply as Les Musiciens--which is how they are being billed at the second stop on this tour, next week in West Hollywood--but only their individual names appear on their distinguished recordings.

“We prefer just our personal names,” said violinist Regis Pasquier. “In Europe, we play as soloists all the time, and so those names are known. But for the U.S., it seemed easier to have a simple name that identifies where we are from and what we do.”

The others are Jean-Claude Pennetier, the pianist, and Roland Pidoux, the cellist. In the late 1950s, all three were young students at the National Conservatory in Paris, where they now teach.

“We were very young when we started,” Pasquier recalled by phone from Paris. “I have been playing with our pianist for maybe 35 years or more. We decided that we wanted to play trios with an excellent French cellist. We have performed in Paris and recorded for a long time, but our first tour was eight or nine years ago.”

Though this is the ensemble’s local debut, Pasquier has been to Southern California in several guises. A pupil of Zino Francescatti, he was once the soloist for George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on a tour that came here. He still appears often with orchestras, but it is clear where his heart lies.

“For me, chamber music is very open. The contact with the other musicians is so rich, with very fine decisions to be made about everything. We can play chamber music as friends, and I think that is a good thing.”

Pasquier has also visited the area with his string trio, a group that includes his brother, Bruno Pasquier, as violist, and Pidoux as cellist.

“The repertory for the string trio is very small,” Pasquier noted, “but with the piano there are greater possibilities. Also, the music is different in character--the string trio is usually more intimate; with piano, the music is more soloistic and extroverted.”

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The music the Paris Piano Trio plans to play in Irvine is all French--trios by Camille Saint-Saens, Maurice Ravel and Ernest Chausson--but not because the ensemble considers itself an exponent of a national style of playing or composition. The dissemination of recordings and the constant travel of musicians has made all music common property.

“Maybe earlier and just after [World War II] you had to be French to play French composers,” Pasquier said, “but everybody can play French music very well now. I don’t think there is a national style of playing, not any more.”

The Paris Piano Trio embodies this inclusive philosophy. Though it has recorded the Chausson Trio on the Thursday program, the ensemble made its name with Schubert and Brahms. On this tour alone, the musicians are carrying 11 works, including Schubert and Brahms as well as trios by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. In December, they recorded Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich for their longtime label, Harmonia Mundi France.

In any case, there is nothing one dimensional about a French program such as this, as Pasquier said: “The Chausson is a very Romantic work, with a good balance for each instrument. Saint-Saens is more intimate, with some spirit like Marcel Proust. Ravel is more universal. We will record the Ravel, but our next big project is to prepare the complete Beethoven trios.”

* Paris Piano Trio performs Thursday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, in a presentation of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. 8 p.m. $20-$25. (714) 553-2422.