Eroica Trio Lends Spirit to Mixed Program

The Pacific Symphony gave us a night of paradox and disappointment Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The Eroica Trio--that svelte embodiment of modernism--played Beethoven just like their grandparents might have. Guest conductor Maximiano Valdes flattened Wagner’s masterpiece of counterpoint, the Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” into a textureless pancake. Then, to top it off, he led a numbing account of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7.

Actually, the Eroica Trio--violinist Adela Pen~a, cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio and pianist Erika Nickrenz--probably played better than their grandparents would have, at least on a technical level. Sant’Ambrogio certainly burned up the instrument, though her infectious power and flamboyance and the three soloists’ musical responsiveness to one another accrued more to their glory than to service to the composer and his Triple Concerto.

But stylistically, it was as if 30-some recent years of research, insight and debate about historical performance practice had never occurred. Tempos were slow. Lines were long and Chopin-esque. Textures were romantically plush. Vibrato was at the max.

Perhaps given the makeup of the large orchestra, which included four horns and eight string basses, they didn’t have much choice, although Valdes balanced the orchestra and the soloists quite well.

After opening Dvorak’s dramatic D-minor Symphony with a sense of intriguing mystery, Valdes rather quickly abandoned subtlety and relied on time-beating and raw power to make a case for the music. It didn’t work well. Dvorak’s beautiful orchestration was smothered in boxy phrasing and minimal differences in contrasting themes.

That was the case in the Wagner Prelude, too--with the added burden of stodgy tempos, muddy textures and industrial-strength dynamics. The composer’s astonishing interweaving of numerous musical themes could only be inferred.