The Eroica Trio Dwells on Overkill

In the hands of the Eroica Trio, the subtle art of chamber music is subtle no more. Friday, in the final concert at Doheny Mansion in this season’s Chamber Music in Historic Sites series, the ensemble delivered its program with such gusto that you could practically feel a wind.

Founded in 1986, the Eroica--pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Adela Pena, cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio--is very aware of the parameters of performance (including concert attire and stage demeanor), and it pumps up the trio to surpass them. After the second movement of the “Ghost” Trio, the man in front of me whispered to his companion, “What a remarkable performance,” and indeed it was.

The fact is that, in order to make a point, the group resorts to distortion pretty often. From slinky dresses to breathless interpretations to tossing hair, the Eroica is defined by overkill.

That is what happened in Beethoven’s “Ghost,” which emerged in a performance of such hyper-energy, explosiveness and exalted swooning that the piece itself mattered no more. Similarly, a gaudy arrangement of Gershwin’s Three Piano Preludes became the occasion for over-the-top exuberance and intense pressures, turning the composer’s original cool into heat.

Some music can take the Eroica treatment better, and the throbbing, Russian Romanticism of Arensky’s Trio in D minor was rendered handsomely to scale.